MSN's Slate site has an interesting article by Stephen Totilo entitled Why aren't videogames funny?. His argument is that the inherent difficulty of shoe-horning comic moments into an interactive experience, together with modern gaming's obsession with graphics rather than story-telling, mean that designers rarely bother with humour (or if they do, it's relegated to the odd action movie-style quip in the cut-scenes).
I sort of agree with him, but he misses out on the humour that players create for themselves by subverting the game universe. This can mean anything from simply running over pedestrians in GTA to creating hilarious stunt and blooper movies out of in-game footage (there are some great Battlefield 1942 examples here).
And he completely overlooks the likes of Dance Dance Revolution and EyeToy: Play which make comic stars out of all of us. I also think Metal Slug is a very funny game. What do you reckon? Is humour really dead?
