What's so funny about videogames? Well, very little according to this Edge magazine article, recently made digital and posted up on the edge-online website. We've tried to analyse, but never came close to this excellent feature which documents the historical attempts to bring comedy to the interactive medium.
From the article:
The funny moments are the moments when you sit back from the game, ready to read, hear or note whatever laugh the game maker has in store for you. Whether it's a Raiden poster tucked away in Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater, or Tommy Vercetti biting his tongue at the lunacy of Love Fist, these are moments which, precisely because of the concerns [Ron] Gilbert outlines about controlling timing and building expectations, require no input from the player. And while they can be enormously entertaining, it's hard not to feel that gaming should be capable of more. If what sets games apart is interactivity, shouldn't their humour be interactive too? What happens if instead of a passive observer the player becomes a participant?
Part of the problem, the author maintains, is that the people who are penning the guffaws are generally not trained to write for laughs. Ultimately, the article draws the same conclusions that we have in the past - good jokes will come from the players, rather than the bods writing them.
