Why do people like Disco Elysium's writing so much?

[Goose]

Disco was one of the most beautiful, most heartbreaking, and most hopeful experiences of my gaming life. It made me cry as I played it and then I cried again when I talked about it with my girlfriend.

The fact that she didn't run away screaming after seeing a grown man shed a tear over a videogame character is the true surprise twist in this story.

That one is a keeper. Don't know if you are joking or serious,but disco does have very human writing.

I wasn't joking. I truly enjoyed the writing in this game, and I really did shed a tear in front of her.

And I don't think the game is communist. Just look at the end "villain". His entire life is the tragedy that ensues from following communism blindly. Instead, the game exposes the faults of all political ideologies and that is the whole point: if you do decide to choose one of them, the game makes it clear you are simultaneously either embracing or denying its darker aspects, and each one has those.

But honestly, for me the political shenanigans pale when compared to the central issue: and that is that the detective case you are working on serves as a framework for your one last chance to save your soul, find hope in a dying world, abandon destructive behaviour, and attempt to move on from the loss of Dora. Or not. The choice is there, and the game is just as good whatever you choose.

He's just a tankie. It's not an indictment of coomunism as a whole.

 

[Harthwain]

He's just a tankie. It's not an indictment of coomunism as a whole.

OBJECTION!

Spoiler

What more proof do you need?

 

[Goose]

He's just a tankie. It's not an indictment of coomunism as a whole.

OBJECTION!

Spoiler

What more proof do you need?

That's just a dead body giving you a clue. There's no commentary on Communism, it's merely an insinuation that he was offed by a commie.

I have to ignore this thread now, I don't want to talk about this trash game anymore. It's like a horrible fever dream that I was glad to forget.

 

[Quilty]

Disco was one of the most beautiful, most heartbreaking, and most hopeful experiences of my gaming life. It made me cry as I played it and then I cried again when I talked about it with my girlfriend.

The fact that she didn't run away screaming after seeing a grown man shed a tear over a videogame character is the true surprise twist in this story.

That one is a keeper. Don't know if you are joking or serious,but disco does have very human writing.

I wasn't joking. I truly enjoyed the writing in this game, and I really did shed a tear in front of her.

And I don't think the game is communist. Just look at the end "villain". His entire life is the tragedy that ensues from following communism blindly. Instead, the game exposes the faults of all political ideologies and that is the whole point: if you do decide to choose one of them, the game makes it clear you are simultaneously either embracing or denying its darker aspects, and each one has those.

But honestly, for me the political shenanigans pale when compared to the central issue: and that is that the detective case you are working on serves as a framework for your one last chance to save your soul, find hope in a dying world, abandon destructive behaviour, and attempt to move on from the loss of Dora. Or not. The choice is there, and the game is just as good whatever you choose.

He's just a tankie. It's not an indictment of coomunism as a whole.

I'm not saying it's an indictment of communism. The game is not that simplistic.

I wouldn't say the game takes a stance either for or against any political ideology. Rather, it allows YOU to take a stance, and by allowing you to do so, exposes this act for what it is: fraught with difficulty and self-delusion, for choosing any one ideology without examining its failures and drawbacks cannot lead to anything good. On the other hand, aren't we supposed to take a stance? How can we go through life without taking a stance? This is the central dilemma: every choice has a consequence, and there are no ideal choices. It is an obvious indictment of the PARAGON/RENEGADE stuff we see in other RPGs. That's why the game pokes fun at you whatever choice you make, especially if you choose to be staunchly neutral.

 

[Quilty]

He's just a tankie. It's not an indictment of coomunism as a whole.

OBJECTION!

Spoiler

What more proof do you need?

That's just a dead body giving you a clue. There's no commentary on Communism, it's merely an insinuation that he was offed by a commie.

I have ignore this thread now, I don't want to talk about this trash game anymore. It's like a horrible fever dream that I was glad to forget.

It seems to me like you want an easy answer: is this game pro or against communism. That's not the central question. The question is what do YOU stand for or against.

 

[gurugeorge]

I always thought that the problem with gaming journalists is that they blindly serve big corporations. like supporting micotranslations, loot boxes etc. The more you know.

Nah, that's baby stuff.

Although gayming journalists are corporate bootlickers, it doesn't matter if it clashes with their other views. This is the same group of people who align Feminists with Muslims, bitch about corporatism on their iphones, and say "ACAB" knowing they need the police more than anyone.

American politics is a smorgasbord of shit all mushed up together. Marxist corporate shills and Muslim loving Femdogs all working together under a rainbow banner. None of it makes any sense because it doesn't need to. Their only purpose is to spread chaos.

Besides everyone needs a paycheck, even larping revolutionaries.

Largely agreed, but I disagree that it's chaos though. It seems like chaos if you naively think that anyone's working according to principles, but if you manage to get right down to the bottom of the bottle, you know that most of it is very tightly focused on preventing anti-Semitism by preventing White people from organizing collectively to advocate for their interests. That's it, that's (pretty much) the sole focus, and everything makes sense from that point of view. Everything else - all the "causes" - is smoke and mirrors to energize the useful idiots.

 

[Harthwain]

That's just a dead body giving you a clue. There's no commentary on Communism, it's merely an insinuation that he was offed by a commie.

I wasn't entirely serious writing that answer. It merely fit the tone of the conversation at the moment.

However, though the game is drenched in absurd humor, I'd argue that having communist lines literally littered with encouragement to (or the mentions of) mass killings all over the place

Spoiler

(there is the mention of the execution of the workers involved in the super-computer project by the communists and killing of the civilian population unwilling to fight for the communists during the invasion from the Coalition, aside from what I mentioned already in my previous posts)

IS a form of commentary regarding communism. At least the practical implementation of it (read: the player can do better! He alone will build better and stronger communism!).

Spoiler

He won't. See: Mazovian Socio-Economics.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I wouldn't say the game takes a stance either for or against any political ideology. Rather, it allows YOU to take a stance, and by allowing you to do so, exposes this act for what it is: fraught with difficulty and self-delusion, for choosing any one ideology without examining its failures and drawbacks cannot lead to anything good. On the other hand, aren't we supposed to take a stance? How can we go through life without taking a stance? This is the central dilemma: every choice has a consequence, and there are no ideal choices. It is an obvious indictment of the PARAGON/RENEGADE stuff we see in other RPGs. That's why the game pokes fun at you whatever choice you make, especially if you choose to be staunchly neutral.

Pretty much. If anything, the game's metapolitical bent is a nihilistic one. Whichever ideology you choose (including that of the political centrist deluding himself into thinking that he is not eating from the trashcan of ideology through his self-portrayal as a down-to-earth, ideologically neutral sort of detective), you're ultimately still an autonomous social agent interacting with others within a politicized world on the basis of your own subjective values and thus engaging in political action whether you are aware of it or not. And since Harry's ideology is ultimately rooted in his subjective view of the world (which parallels that of the player if the latter is roleplaying on the basis of his own ideology), the game calls you out on your partisan behavior and humorously showcases the arbitrary nature of one's ideology by way of satire.

People who criticize Disco Elysium's caricatural portrayal of this or that ideology seem to miss the fact that all of the game's ideological identities start as a conscious choice on the part of Harry to accept the internalization of a political thought at the behest of an associated skill. And what are the skills represented in the theater of one's mind if not caricatures in themselves? By internalizing an ideology, you give free reign to those skills within the theater of Harry's mind to define his behavior.

 

[fantadomat]

Disco was one of the most beautiful, most heartbreaking, and most hopeful experiences of my gaming life. It made me cry as I played it and then I cried again when I talked about it with my girlfriend.

The fact that she didn't run away screaming after seeing a grown man shed a tear over a videogame character is the true surprise twist in this story.

That one is a keeper. Don't know if you are joking or serious,but disco does have very human writing.

I wasn't joking. I truly enjoyed the writing in this game, and I really did shed a tear in front of her.

And I don't think the game is communist. Just look at the end "villain". His entire life is the tragedy that ensues from following communism blindly. Instead, the game exposes the faults of all political ideologies and that is the whole point: if you do decide to choose one of them, the game makes it clear you are simultaneously either embracing or denying its darker aspects, and each one has those.

But honestly, for me the political shenanigans pale when compared to the central issue: and that is that the detective case you are working on serves as a framework for your one last chance to save your soul, find hope in a dying world, abandon destructive behaviour, and attempt to move on from the loss of Dora. Or not. The choice is there, and the game is just as good whatever you choose.

Yeah,it very humanly written,everyone with a bit of life experience will get that aspect of life. It is no wonder that americans don't get it,their hardest experience in life is waiting on the quote in mcdonalds to increase they fatlevelz. You can't expect understanding from people that their whole life experience comes from watching tv and playing games.

 

[Roguey]

Why are you linking me some retarded kuktaku journo? I played the game and know well enough how the dialogue is. If you can't differentiate between delivery system and the content in it,then you are fucking retard lol.

I've read the dialogue too and every line reads like it comes from someone who's on twitter 24/7 (that is, people don't talk like this in reality). Perhaps as an ESLer you wouldn't get it.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Perhaps as an ESLer you wouldn't get it.

Newsflash: the devs themselves are ESLers. The format is Twitteresque, not the content, Mr. American.

 

[Roguey]

Newsflash: the devs themselves are ESLers. The format is Twitteresque, not the content, Mr. American.

Kurvitz lives on twitter and once remarked that Eastern Europe has no culture because they lack Jews.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Newsflash: the devs themselves are ESLers. The format is Twitteresque, not the content, Mr. American.

Kurvitz lives on twitter and once remarked that Eastern Europe has no culture because they lack Jews.

Interesting bits of trivia, but I still don't see it.

 

[Harthwain]

What's an ESLer? All I can find is Electronic League Sports.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

What's an ESLer? All I can find is Electronic League Sports.

English as a second language.

 

[Harthwain]

English as a second language.

Thanks.

I've read the dialogue too and every line reads like it comes from someone who's on twitter 24/7 (that is, people don't talk like this in reality). Perhaps as an ESLer you wouldn't get it.

They did admit they shaped the dialogue to fit the social media format, but it doesn't feel unnatural at all when reading. The dialogue is snappy in all senses of the word. People may not talk like this "in reality", but we're talking about a written medium (and I mean both the social media and the game), not the actual live conversation.

 

[Roguey]

we're talking about a written medium (and I mean both the social media and the game), not the actual live conversation.

Over-the-top dramatic dialogue is fine with me, but I hate the way people talk on twitter.

 

[Harthwain]

Over-the-top dramatic dialogue is fine with me, but I hate the way people talk on twitter.

I used to drive people up the wall by being incredibly laconic when on a communicator or in text messages. In my replies I often used a single and very short sentence. Often consisting of a single word, if at all possible.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Over-the-top dramatic dialogue is fine with me, but I hate the way people talk on twitter.

I used to drive people up the wall by being incredibly laconic when on a communicator or in text messages. In my replies I often used a single and very short sentence. Often consisting of a single word, if at all possible.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

 

[samuraigaiden]

Why do people like Disco Elysium's writing so much?

Same reason why Planescape Torment gets so much praise for it's writing and Kojima is considered a genius.

Like most people, gamers don't read.

Since they are used to video game writing aimed at 12 year olds, anything that goes even midly beyond that will be praised beyond it's merits.

Many don't even watch anything except for big blockbusters, super hero movies and Netflix/HBO/Amazon/etc. shows.

The PlayStation game Ghost of Tsushima included a B&W, high contrast mode that is unironically called in-game "Akira Kurosawa mode". It's the first time many gamers ever heard of him and now all they know is he made B&W samurai movies.

Basically, we are all fucking morons.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Like most people, gamers don't read.

I'm a combatfag myself, and I will always state that even the best writing in the games is equal to mostly mediocre literature, but games offer one valuable advantage: they are interactive. Books are mostly passive endeavor, while you consume page upon a page; games give you the chance to participate in the story and change it according to your actions.

 

[JarlFrank]

People that bitch about the writing being communistic are asocial retards. The writing is realistic,there are communists,fascists and libtards in the real world,just like in the game. Bitching about seeing a communist in the fucking game is no different than bitching about muh women being oppressed in game and all that sjw shit. The game is nuanced written and it have hyperbolic elements when representing all the fucking political ideology,it doesn't represent one in better or worst light than the others,all of them have pluses and minuses lol.

This. I don't get the whole "this game is commie propaganda reeee" opinions. I told some genuinely fascist* friends about this game, they played it and loved it. Enjoyed the humor and the characters, and were also able to laugh at the jokes poked at their own ideology and the others. As I said in an earlier post, all the political opinions Harry can pick are political compass meme tier. They all loved Measurehead who, despite being some kind of pacific Islander or something (and not Aryan), has highly based opinions similar to those of our guys. Drugs, booze and degeneracy has cost the ham-sandwich race its leading position in the world. That is true, and Harry is the best example of this. By bullying Harry about it, Measurehead motivates him to go cold turkey and beat his addiction. It's a challenge: if you want to go back to being the master race, you must work on it. Great character and great message.

And that's the thing about Disco Eylsium's politics. They don't exist in a vacuum. They're not some outside opinion told to you by the game. They're opinions held by actual characters in the game world, whom you can either agree or disagree with, and the game won't scold you for it. Only the characters will. There is no fourth wall breaking "hey mate you just said something problematic" or "hey mate you just said something totally cool and correct". Every opinion you hear in the game comes from an NPC who has a reason for these opinions. And all of the game's characters are top notch. They're well-written and feel like actual people rather than mere sterotypes (with the exception of the racist lorry driver, maybe).

*people who read Evola, Devi and Serrano and work out daily to train themselves for the race war, not your average alt-righter; if they can like it, so can you!

 

[Ninjerk]

we're talking about a written medium (and I mean both the social media and the game), not the actual live conversation.

Over-the-top dramatic dialogue is fine with me, but I hate the way people talk on twitter.

Omg I am so, so, so sorry that this happens to you. Just want to send a "hug" your way.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I have never played a game where there was so much of a disconnect between my perception and the general opinion. It won a bunch of awards for its story, people whose opinion I respect praise it highly, but IMO the writing in it is shit. Not mediocre, not sup-bar, but absolute shit.

I can't see it for anything other than self-indulgent, incoherent, disjointed verbal diarrhea. There are way too many unnecessary walls of text, most of the jokes are juvenile and flat, and it really feels like something written by a second year lit student. Someone who just spewed out every thought he's ever had in his head with precisely zero consideration for whether or not any of them make sense individually or fit together as a coherent whole.

So what was it about it that people liked so much?? Can someone please explain the phenomenon to me?

P.S. And before someone tells me to go play Call of Duty or whatever, I'm a person who loves story-heavy games, and loves to read (as in actual books, with pages and shit). I bought Disco Elysium with every expectation that it would be an amazing experience; instead it turned out to be the biggest disappointment of my gaming career.

Game journos don't write reviews based on what they they think, they write reviews hoping to control what YOU think.

 

[Harthwain]

Brevity is the soul of wit.

Indeed.

Like most people, gamers don't read.

I thought so too, but if anything Disco proved people can and enjoy reading. It's just the matter of making reading accessible (and having good quality writing).

Over-the-top dramatic dialogue is fine with me, but I hate the way people talk on twitter.

Omg I am so, so, so sorry that this happens to you. Just want to send a "hug" your way.

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ I AM SENDING YOU MY POSITIVE ENERGY ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

Spoiler

Did I do it right?

And all of the game's characters are top notch. They're well-written and feel like actual people rather than mere sterotypes (with the exception of the racist lorry driver, maybe).

Actually, people can act so stupid in real life that I am inclined to believe even the Lorry Driver could be an actual person.