Seriously Funny

I've been watching a crap load of X-Files over the last couple of weeks. I currently just started the 3rd season, and I've come to realize 2 things about the show. First, there are a ton of actors that you see all over TV nowadays, more so in the Sci-fi genre mind you, that made some sort of appearance on the X-Files—heck both Giovanni Ribisi and Jack Black were in the same episode! Second, as serious as the X-Files is trying to be, it's also full of humour...like a lot of it. Personally I love comedy and this is really amazing; it really makes me wonder why there aren't more serious games that incorporate some form of humour.

I'm not so sure if it's just as simple as saying that some developers are trying to be taken too seriously, so they make serious games. That was my first thought, but I think the industry as a whole has come a long way and gets a lot more recognition than it used to. If it really is the case, I think it's a little sad... humour is a part of everyday life.

This isn't all to say that there isn't any humour in games—I just don't really think it goes very far. I don't even remember the last time I actually laughed out loud playing a game, but I do it nearly every episode of the X-Files. If I were to think of some "funny" games, I would have to go with Escape From Monkey Island and Brutal Legend, both having been made by the same person! Even his new game Broken Age is supposed to be funny, although I haven't tried it. Is Tim Schafer the only funny man in the industry?

All the money

Of course there are also some games that are explicitly trying to be funny, such as South Park: Stick of Truth and the Borderlands series, but in these cases a comedy should be funny. If those games weren't funny, it would be like watching a bad episode of Seinfeld.

I believe the main culprit at hand for the lack of humour in video games is that studios usually don’t have any professional writers on staff. For the most part, believe it or not, the writing is done by committee, usually by the design team and whoever else has some input. Writers do get brought in from time to time, but not too often—a good example of a writer being on staff would be at Bioware, who make huge RPGs with thousands of pages of dialogue and lore. The argument made for this is that the story usually comes second in many game, RPGs withstanding, the main focus is making the game fun and interesting to play.

Other than the graphics getting better this generation, not much has changed in regards to the core gameplay experience; personally I believe this is quickly going to change.  The next step developers are going to have to take is delivering stories worth a player's time; I think that is going to be the biggest difference between generations.

No doubt about those graphics

Infamous: Second Son has some amazing character development and the writing is actually really well done. I thought it was genuinely funny and not the forced kind of funny most games tend to be; it was very natural. I think we're going to start seeing a lot more games released with the level of production Second Son has. Some might even be revealed for the first time in the coming week.

E3 is finally upon us, I can't wait to discuss it all at our weekly podcast. What are you most excited for at this year's E3? Leave a comment below!