Where has the humour gone ?

Alrik Fassbauer

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Hello everyone.

Since months I am thinking of … where the humour might have gone.

Not only in video games, but especially there.

If I look around me, I can see no humour in "the computer industry" anymore. Nothing in video games, and especially NOt in the PC area.

In the 90s, there used to be books making fun of computer aspects.

As my all-time favourite remains the book "DOS 9", a satire on DOS 6, complete with joke programs that seemed to have come from Jester's dreams. The program I liked most was "Frag", the essential counterpart to "Defrag", the program that shipped with MS-DOS 6, having the EXACT same look, but apparingly doing only 1 thing : The opposite of defragging : FRagging the harddisk. You could literally see the blocks being spread around the graphic representation of the harddisk. Plus the harddisk access lamp (which was so much bigger these days than today) was actually flickering ! :lol:

Or, another example. Sierra's "King's Quest" games, the later ones. In my opinion, tghey were basically "family games". They were marketed as such. they had humour, they had graphics that could be seen without any ESBR rating. Plus, it was violent-free. Completely. Because these were Adventure games. Storytellers. (The only exception of that is the very last King's Quest game, which is basically some kind of RPG.)

Family games. Colurfulness. Humour. Violence-free. And humour again.

Does that ring something inside of you ?

And it's humour again which I miss most. What on earth do all games these days have to be so much grim looking, humourless, colourfulness, being about killing invaders, making money as a gangsta, fast racing, about being within a military organisation ?

Hitman, Assassin's, Mount & Blade, the almost proverbial Counterstrike, Far Cry, Company Of Heroes, Larry Laffer, Gobliiins, King's Quest, Day Of The Tentacle, Simon The Sorcerer, The Secret Of Monkey Island … Do you feel that contrast ?

Hitman is no family game. Counterstrike is no family game. Assassin's is no family game. Dragon Age Origins is no family game.

Where has all the humour gone ?

Where has all the lightheartedness gone ?

Where and why did the times change that much ? Why did the players who do not like colourful lighthearted family games get so much influence ?

Why did "the industry" decide to develop games only for them ?

Why were families suddenly something one ould not earn money with ?


And as I do seriously and consciously do know that this argument will come sooner or later : Why do games have to reflect reality so much ?

Why do games have to bring the Syrian war's into my living room ?
Why do games have to bring the Mafia into my living room ?
Why do games have to bring anonymous killers into my living room ?
Why do games have to bring terrorrism into my living room ?
Why do games have to bring military warfare into my living room ?
Why do games have to bring undead ones into my living room ?
Why do games have to bring "greed, for lack of a better word, is good" into my living room ?

Why all this hate against humour ?
Why all this hate against colours ?
Why all this hate against lightheartedness ?
Why all this hate against humbleness ?
Why all this hate against friendliness ?
Why all this hate against stories ?

When did this wheel turn into that direction ? Why did this twist occur ?

I'm clueless.
All I can do is , to describe what i see. I can only build up my theories on that (like my "addition to adrenaline" theory, with people actually relishing the rage within them, like Hooligans do) , but I can never fully explain it.

All I can say is that at one point "the industry" decided - based on what players want :

To get completely rid of humour.
To get completely rid of colourfulness.
To get completely rid of "family games".
To get completely rid of lightheartedness.
To get completely rid of non-violent games.
To get completely rid of story-heavy games.
To get completely rid of non-competitive games.
To get completely rid of Escapism.

And "computer literature" … Well, it consists merely of handbooks now. If I'm looking for humour, I'm directed towards "some web pages". That's all. Outside of that, "computer humour" (like with the satire described abgove) doesn't exist. It has become an extreme niche right now, so extreme that there should be a new term made for it : The "Computer Humour Nerd".





Why ?




Alrik
 
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I think you're being overly dramatic, but you may be onto something. The industry itself is a reflection of society itself, because what sells is what people demand, and in all fields, game developing has to adapt to these demands. And a large number of people who live in developed countries these days, they can barely think for themselves. They rather take the flag of some streamer or trend-setter than having a voice and personality of their own. They get bombed with ideas and agendas, and lacking a motive of their own, they get dragged by these masses, a mob mentality that's accentuated in the internet because it also offers the advantage of remaining completely annonimous so that you don't have to say anything to anyone's actual face and deal with the consequences.

I don't think the industry has become less humorous, I think the current society just has become less humorous itself, more driven by drama, conflict and what divides us than what makes us come together. Brexit here, Catalonia independency there, North Korea nuclear testing, China's conspiracy theories… about every developed country in the world is either in inner turmoil between political parties with fascists, separatists and extremists, or looking for enemies based on lack of information, ignorance, and biased hatred. Some presidents of important countries in the world are claiming, with full conviction, that Covid-19 has been caused by 5G tech, China being behind it, to attack the western world. It doesn't get much worse than that, when the political leaders and representatives of important nations can't be told apart from a common simpleton that repeats ignorant messages spoken from utter racism.

And those voices grow louder by the minute, intolerant voices that tell you who you must be and who must you sleep with, what does it mean to be a good patriot and pointing out traitors, returning to ages that we had already overcome as a society. These people are sadly earning positions where they actually can sway the direction of countries and their policies. Their message gets adopted by weak-willed individuals that take it as their mantra, and that gets reflected on everything, not only in the way we live, but also in the way we have fun, videogames included, because drama and conflict will sell better than a game about riding rainbow ponies.
 
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Why do games have to bring the Syrian war's into my living room ?
Why do games have to bring the Mafia into my living room ?
Why do games have to bring anonymous killers into my living room ?
Why do games have to bring terrorrism into my living room ?
Why do games have to bring military warfare into my living room ?
Why do games have to bring undead ones into my living room ?
Why do games have to bring "greed, for lack of a better word, is good" into my living room ?
They don't. A few of them do, but only if you choose to play those particular games.

Like WW2 games have been with us for as long as I can remember, They only bring WW2 into your house if you choose to play them.

Like hyper-violent games have been part of the industry almost since the beginning of gaming.

Like fighting and killing enemies have been a major part of almost every RPG.

Alrik, I think that for you, like me, this is more about us changing, than the industry. And I think you tend to generalise, like everyone (!). There are a lot of different games without the features you mention.

You're right about one thing, however. Adventure games don't seem to be as popular as they used to be. But I think that's more to do with lack of customer interest than unwillingness to make them per se.

There are still a lot of games with humour in them. According to the net Borderlands is funny. From a personal perspective, I'd say there is a lot of easter eggs/funny references in Wow.

As for humour in computer books: A quick google gave this result (https://www.google.com/search?sourc...AhVEi8MKHfhzB0wQ7Al6BAgKEEQ&biw=1301&bih=1038). But in the days of the interenet, you will of course find more on web sites.

a pibbur who for the record is wrong about many things.
 
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I think one of the reasons comedy games are quite rare is that humour is very subjective, and if the audience is not amused, then the game can fail despite being well-made. That makes them a riskier proposition, as games get more expensive to produce.

I also read that in cinema, comedies are becoming rarer, probably for similar reasons. A comedy can be a hit if it gets terrific reviews and word of mouth, but their track record at the box office is not great.
 
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Seems Alrik overslept past 5 years, I wonder where. Just kidding, of course we all know where.
Humor is not gone. It's you who went searching for it in mmos.
I also read that in cinema, comedies are becoming rarer
What cinema would that be? No choice one I guess.
Humor me please, did your cinema dare to screen these (just an example):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9541602/ - Extreme Job (2019)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11649614/ - Hitman: Agent Jun (2020)

I bet not.
 
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The new Leisure Suit Larry game is out on Steam Oct 15th. :blush:
 
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Humor me please, did your cinema dare to screen these (just an example):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9541602/ - Extreme Job (2019)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11649614/ - Hitman: Agent Jun (2020)

I bet not.

In western big budget movies it is. Comedy's rarely make the money back and never win the big awards. Sure they still make them but it's not the preferred genre of Hollywood.

Never was I'm afraid to say. Money is on Marvel, Star Wars, and DC movies.

As for games I never liked humor it always ruined RPGs for me. Larian for one example goes overboard sometimes, and Two Worlds 2 was corny to the point of cringe.

One RPG that humor was done right was Witcher 2 & 3 but it was due to you getting drunk.
 
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In the beginning pc gaming was made up of hobbyists and enthusiasts. It was not easy to develop games and the people who did it really wanted to do it. They still wanted to turn a buck of course but back then nothing was set in stone in terms of do's and don'ts. Things were experimental in other words. The games that were produced were for fellow enthusiasts and society did not pay much attention to what was produced. This was a very good thing because it meant developers had a lot of freedom to be creative and take risks.

As production costs began to climb developers needed publishers more and more to foot the bill. Most got bought up and became part of the corporate machine. For along time there was only AAA or indie as the AA scene had largely died out. Sure-fire hits and tried and tested genre's became the safe bet and money went into graphics and presentation more and more each generation. The inevitable result is things have gotten stale for those of us who experienced gaming from its beginning. Many would say they have already played better versions of games then what is being released today in our favourite genre's, its hard to impress us.

For the newbies, everything is new and shiny still but unfortunately they are being raised on monetisation practises that were unthinkable to us. This is because of one simple fact, the market today is huge and largely casual. Publishers want all their games to be accessible as possible and as addictive as possible. This results in watered down mechanics, safe choices, and rampant monetisation. Humour is risky so don't expect it in AAA games apart from simple Whedon like banter aka Buffy the Vampire Slayer, somehow it passes for clever among lackwits. They are trying to appeal to all the potential consumers after all. Also the breaking up of content into smaller and smaller chunks is to a> increase monetisation b>keep players invested in the game due to fear of missing out. If the game is mass market it is going to be something your friends do, you will keep paying for these content packs or you will not be able to keep up with your friends.

In other words forget about AAA gaming, it is largely dead if you are a traditional gamer with a few exceptions. Look for the AA or indie games. There are still decent things being produced but little marketing muscle behind them. Portal and Portal 2 are pretty funny and good puzzle games. Quantum Conundrum is also worth a look if you like Portal. The remake of Destroy All Humans! looks like a fun game also.
 
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Well said but I find most AA or B budget games don't fit my tastes anymore. It's like a buffet on Steam. All you can eat and most of them end up being mediocre at best.

Seems the preferred games right now are a crap ton of SRPGs or something similar. I see a new one announced almost every week on the internet. I just roll my eyes and think pass.

On the flip side more RPGs of good quality made with 2+ million or less budgets are getting developed by other studios overseas nowadays. So I guess its not all that bad.

If you wade through all the crap that is.:cool:
 
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Comedy's rarely make the money back and never win the big awards.
You got something very wrong.

I seriously doubt Dolemite is my name didn't make money back and some more. To be honest I watched it only for Wesley Snipes (who nailed the short role ofc) not knowing what the movie is actually about, but it rocks. And I normally hate biographies. So what made this biography so good?

About big awards, you seem to forget there is best comedy oscar, best comedy emmy, critics' choice comedy and etc best comedy.
What other genre has something like that? None.

Money is on Marvel, Star Wars, and DC movies.
Electronic Arts preached for a decade that the money is in mmos.
The sad truth is that their money is in lootboxes.

And of course singleplayer games still sell just as much as before if not more.

Now that's a fantastic pick.
Remember the first presentation of BG3 gameplay? What happened there?
A comedy of errors.
 
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I didn't forget/get anything wrong. Good luck getting a new comedy film funded.:cool:

It'll probably be another B-budget knock-off among countless others.
 
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But you instantly forgot although I've posted examples above.
A film can be made without Warner's money. Anywhere in the world. Except, maybe, in Hollywood.

Because this is Alrik's thread, lemme point at something from the past he forgot, but I didn't:
I say it's a cutural thing. "Der bewegte Mann" was a "miss" in other countries, even although it sold fairly well in Germany. Different cultures have different kinds of humour.
That particular title I've never heard about before. I'm gonna find it and watch it even if it's the last thing for me to do. I promise!
But, in case of that one, if we'll trust one imdb user, the reason is not cultural differences - but sloppy translation:
https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0334885/
As it happens, later I found that movie and watched it.
It plays with stuff rarely seen on screen - caught cheating an idiot gets kicked out by his girlfriend only to get a temporary stay at certain tranny's house. This leads to a comedy (of errors).
It's a good movie as it's pretty much unique with matters covered in it, it's really funny, not vulgar and it's not turning people into caricatures like Hollywood does with it's Idiocracy/HarrisonBergeron brought to life products in past two decades.
I have no idea what it's budget was, definetly not billions, but I don't care, I wouldn't refuse another from same authors.
 
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Yep another B-budget movie among countless others as I've said already.:biggrin:
 
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Don’t waste your time giving recommendations. Every time Alrik makes one of these threads people suggest many games and yet a month later he makes another thread.

I think Alrik enjoys talking about his perceived lack of these kinds of games rather than actually finding and playing them.

For me personally gaming has never been better. AAA, AA, indie all have something I like and can play. Really there are so many games now you have to be ultra cynical to not be able to find stuff you like.
 
Don’t waste your time giving recommendations. Every time Alrik makes one of these threads people suggest many games and yet a month later he makes another thread.
Actually it's worse than that.
As I've posted/edited above, I took his recommendation and found that certain rare movie. And watched it.
Him? Never ever took any of my countless recommendations. Not a single one. Even to tell me afterwards that something sucks.
Maybe because I said decades ago Zoolander is one of the worst movies I've ever seen? So what if I hated it?

Maybe the best thing would be if he just put me on ignorelist.
 
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I was thinking there are too many games with too much humor myself - where it feels out of place or too corny. Seems like so many games add slapstick of humor.

In the past two years have played games with companions with touching, loving, sad, stories. Had great friendships.

Plenty of color, fun, escape and more.

I don't see it myself. I did enjoy the OP's post though as it opens your eyes to how someone else can see the world you see in such a completely different way. I monitor all RPG style games and while I don't play all of them I certainly never had any of the feeling that the OP wrote about.

In thinking about it maybe because I don't pay attention to many styles of games. Horror and war games I don't even read about or look into as they don't interest me. So right there is a large chunk I don't even have on my radar to think about. Same for modern gangster games or the like.

The games I do like - mostly fantasy RPG's with FO4 being an exception (and that game has some great companions and humor although admittedly it IS a dark game), I find a good mix of combat and exploring. Sometimes the humor can be a little too much or off but other times fits right in.

There seem to be a lot of whimsical and humorous games based on reviews - a lot of them are not my style (anime like art, turn based, JRPG, other things I don't enjoy).

What I really see here with the OP is called confirmation bias.

The OP is really only focused, probably unconsciously, on seeing their theories validated. So they seek out examples of all the games that fit their idea that their is only violence, rage, lack of humor, no color, no friendliness, etc., and focuses on those. Those games that don't validate the theory they gloss over - or, more likely, focus on just the parts of the game they don't like and ignoring that the game has many of the qualities they say they also like.

We tend to see what we want to see, what our experiences and expectations drive us to see.

I am 55 and have been playing computer games, outside of a dry spell for about 10 years, since I had an Apple 2E. I am not a fan of overly violent, horror, war, or "modern" games that are violent (GTA, Farcry, and sure lots more I can't list now). So my perception is clouded right there.

I only know from what I have played, and continue to play, that I don't really see much of what the OP is talking about. Oh I see some of it an in some games. What I don't see is this trend to get rid of all other styles of games. I see a great mix of game styles. I see fun and serious, violent and non-violent (Indie especially has had a lot of humor and non-violent focused games), real life and pure fantasy, a real diverse mix.

I also have seen trends, copy-cat themes, and the like come and go over time.

Anyhow I just don't see it myself. Games seem more diverse then ever these days with something for everyone - from kids and family to hard core dark gaming.

Side note that I read a couple articles recently about current state of violence in various countries. Often the perceived sense of crime doesn't match the stats (media is a big cause of this as well as the internet and fake news). Another article pointed out what historians know about violence in the past and every day violence was a lot more common and extreme than in most places today (although obviously there are countries torn by war and ongoing violence).

EDIT: Realized I hadn't mentioned the general computer humor. That I don't know as I never read that kind of humor. I certainly see a plethora of memes and internet humor about IT, the "IT" Help Desk, computers and operating systems, etc. Maybe less books as this day and age things are more electronic and internet based. But I get jokes about computers and IT support in my FB feed fairly often.

I think there are plenty of humor books - a quick glance at Amazon shows that.

Again I truly think the OP is so focused on validating their own belief and theories they are only seeing what they want to see - what backs up their idea - and not seeing there is plenty to counter that.

As Sakichop pointed out this has come up before and people keep pointing out game after game as evidence to the contrary but that all seems to be dismissed since it doesn't back up the OP's game-view.
 
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I think you're being overly dramatic, but you may be onto something. The industry itself is a reflection of society itself, because what sells is what people demand, and in all fields, game developing has to adapt to these demands. And a large number of people who live in developed countries these days, they can barely think for themselves. They rather take the flag of some streamer or trend-setter than having a voice and personality of their own. They get bombed with ideas and agendas, and lacking a motive of their own, they get dragged by these masses, a mob mentality that's accentuated in the internet because it also offers the advantage of remaining completely annonimous so that you don't have to say anything to anyone's actual face and deal with the consequences.

I don't think the industry has become less humorous, I think the current society just has become less humorous itself, more driven by drama, conflict and what divides us than what makes us come together. Brexit here, Catalonia independency there, North Korea nuclear testing, China's conspiracy theories… about every developed country in the world is either in inner turmoil between political parties with fascists, separatists and extremists, or looking for enemies based on lack of information, ignorance, and biased hatred. Some presidents of important countries in the world are claiming, with full conviction, that Covid-19 has been caused by 5G tech, China being behind it, to attack the western world. It doesn't get much worse than that, when the political leaders and representatives of important nations can't be told apart from a common simpleton that repeats ignorant messages spoken from utter racism.

And those voices grow louder by the minute, intolerant voices that tell you who you must be and who must you sleep with, what does it mean to be a good patriot and pointing out traitors, returning to ages that we had already overcome as a society. These people are sadly earning positions where they actually can sway the direction of countries and their policies. Their message gets adopted by weak-willed individuals that take it as their mantra, and that gets reflected on everything, not only in the way we live, but also in the way we have fun, videogames included, because drama and conflict will sell better than a game about riding rainbow ponies.

Keeping an open mind, and possibly to contradict myself a little as I read some of the replies after posting, there is also something to be said for the above.

But I would put this under the part I brought up trends - which to me reflects what is hot/current in culture as well as reflects trends in society.

So I can see some evidence to suggest the world is in a darker place in the last few years than in earlier times and games may reflect this. Games are made by people which means they will always be influenced, to various degrees, to their life experiences and society.

That being said I still think there is plenty of counter-evidence, as already pointed out, and a good degree of confirmation bias, to the OP's main post.
 
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About big awards, you seem to forget there is best comedy oscar

This doesn't exist.

Dolomite was entertaining, but it didn't get anything at the Oscars, or the Golden Globes. It also got a very limited cinema release, then went straight to Netflix. I doubt it made the big bucks that get the executives excited.

Eddie got the Razzie Redeemer Award, though.
 
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