Decline where do all the comedy videogame gone?

[HoboForEternity]

Isn't Borderlands series supposed to be funny, including the Telltale's Spinn-off?

i admit some joke in BL 2 cracked me up, and telltale borderlands is one of my favorite telltale game, and that's teh last okay game they made before they went to crap

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Comedy died with Leslie Nielsen.

 

[Astral Rag]

Isn't Borderlands series supposed to be funny, including the Telltale's Spinn-off?

"Supposed to be" indeed.

 

[Falksi]

It seems comedy videogames is in stroke induced coma along with adventure games. We used to have hilarious shit like monkey island, sam and max hit the road, hell even telltale sam and max was pretty funny. ace attorney is also hilarious VN/adventure game hybrid thing and i love them all. in 90s, comedy ish shooter was also in, with the serious sam, duke nukem games

In 2000s Occasionally, we got non adventure comedy games like saints row, but the series is dead, and went downhill after 2 anyway, which is like what? Psychonauts was brilliant and funny too. Portal and portal 2 was great too, too bad valve is too busy snorting steam money now.

It is in 10s when gritty, serious shooters began to take hold, comedy videogames has been declining so much in quantity and quality. I dont remember any good comedy game that came out in the last 3 years. South park stick of truth and fractures butthole is the closest videogame i remember that fully commits to being comedic.

West of loathing is supposedly good too o guess.

Other than that, i dunno. I want to laugh like the first time i saw el pollo diablo in monkey island.

Don't disagree, but I'm a big lover of Divinity 2:TDKS & Risen 2. Neither are comedy games in the way Monkey Island was, but both do contain some cracking humour IMO.

Thrive on both games big time, and would recomend them to anyone after a bit of lighter RPG-ing.

 

[ColonelTeacup]

This is at best tangentially related, but I feel like sharing. I recently discovered that it is very likely that the comedian bill burr was cuckolded by his african american wife with some actor she did a minor part in a movie with. According to rumors, the child is even darker than her, which is one of the primary factors for why Bill refuses to so much as even release a picture. When he subtly began referencing paternity tests as well, she threatened to divorce him and kicked him out of his house. This is all hearsay atm, though this is the woman who made him sell his car, and put down his dog, so who knows?

 

[ghostdog]

Indeed, humor-focused games are very rare right now, especially from big publishers.

Ghost of a Tale is a great little indie game with excellent atmosphere, story, presentation, gameplay. Even if it's a stealth/action adventure game it feels a lot like the classic lucasarts games and it has a lot of good humor in the writing.

 

[Alpan]

Before asking what happened to comedy games I wonder what happened to comedy?

If I think of films and TV it's like something happened in the 90's. It's difficult to explain but like too many people started getting things that weren't meant to be serious, seriously. But there's something else. Like there's something quite sinister lurking somewhere and current demands to be Political Correct to absurd standards is just a symptom.

The something you're looking for is 9/11. It traumatized the U.S. and rendered comedy taboo for the vast majority of its subjects.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

The something you're looking for is 9/11. It traumatized the U.S. and rendered comedy taboo for the vast majority of its subjects.

9/11 happened in 2001. Comedy died after 2015. That makes no sense.

 

[c2007]

While Mel Brooks lives, so does comedy.

We are running out of time.

 

[Jacob]

It seems comedy videogames is in stroke induced coma along with adventure games. We used to have hilarious shit like monkey island, sam and max hit the road, hell even telltale sam and max was pretty funny. ace attorney is also hilarious VN/adventure game hybrid thing and i love them all. in 90s, comedy ish shooter was also in, with the serious sam, duke nukem games

In 2000s Occasionally, we got non adventure comedy games like saints row, but the series is dead, and went downhill after 2 anyway, which is like what? Psychonauts was brilliant and funny too. Portal and portal 2 was great too, too bad valve is too busy snorting steam money now.

It is in 10s when gritty, serious shooters began to take hold, comedy videogames has been declining so much in quantity and quality. I dont remember any good comedy game that came out in the last 3 years. South park stick of truth and fractures butthole is the closest videogame i remember that fully commits to being comedic.

West of loathing is supposedly good too o guess.

Other than that, i dunno. I want to laugh like the first time i saw el pollo diablo in monkey island.

It's not that the intention went away, there are always games that doesn't take themselves too seriously. The problem is that you don't find them funny. Either they play it safe even though it's supposed to be goofy, or that the jokes fall flat. And why is that? My theory basically goes from what catfood said. Humor is offensive. Pop media leans left-wing. Left-wing ideas of the 90s are offensive. Left-wing ideas of the 10s are the offended. This is why most of their attempts at humor fall flat. It's a humor about not being offended xD and the likes.

 

[SpoilVictor]

It is hard to joke/make fun of something if everything is offensive, that's for sure. Remember times when EA faked some Christian outrage about Dante's Inferno? Now only "safe" topics for joking are those Christians, Trump or white men.

Aside from that it is really hard to write comedy (good one), and devs don't like to take risks. If you write cliche "serious" story ppl more than often will be like "it's meh, it's ok" and move on. But if you write comedy and it falls flat or simply misses audience's sense of humor, ppl will point out it sucks badly. It is safer bet to go for "serious" route.

Other thing is what is funny for target audience (kids/teens/YA) now days? Fart jokes? Eating Tide-pods? What kind of comedy can you cook up for fans of PewDiePie or Fortnite?

 

[Angthoron]

Who needs comedy games when the whole industry is a joke?

 

[deuxhero]

They exist but, like most good games these days, come from Japan. Unfortunately, unlike most of the incline from there, this is often lost in translation.