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

[fantadomat]

Well, I would argue that, but that's neither here nor there. Mainly just typin' a dot to display my disagreement. Planescape is a typical symbolic piece. It asks a question ‘bout how does one deal with their regrets, guilts and choices – with their torment, which is all internal, like Hermes says in Hadestown musical: between your ears, behind your eyes (with a small caveat that what’s there in your mind manifests physically due to rules of Planescape setting). All companions reflect this theme and story of the Nameless One is a parable all in itself – ‘bout traps and dangers of seekin’ easy ways out of consequences of bein’ yourself. After all best ending is considered to be the one in which you fully embrace yourself and in consequence loose your soul to the Blood War, an endless punishment which you fully deserve.

When you put it like that,sure you could read it that way. Which is pretty much lost on me,since i am a straight forward man that aims to own up on his fuck ups and such. Which means that i assume that its normal for the world to be like that,to some extent and don't read that much. That said.....i really don't fully agree that the nameless one really deserve to end up in hell or not. Some of his reincarnations were pretty shit,but there were some that are good. Don't know if the evil outweighs the good.

Not that (I also quite liked the supernatural of Disco). I meant style of the setting. It's deliberately overexaggerated, painted with way too bright colours and with way too stark contours. It’s a fairy-tale, just with ghostly corporate managers, cyclopean union bosses and typical fallen angel-unfallen angel figures with Mr Bulbasaur and Kim respectively playin’ their parts. This world is deliberately very unreal with how it looks, how it feels and how it operates. It’s best I can describe what I mean.

Yeah,i get you. It does have very.....melancholic feel,the art style. For me worked very well and really made me sad. It does reminds me of past glories and the feeling you get of "getting past the best of you with time,and the slow lost of what you loved".....if that makes sense . It is very human game,some times it makes you laugh,some times it makes you remember lost love,some times it makes sad for what it is as it is now.

That said i think that you overthink a bit when it comes to games. Most of those things are not by design,just the human part of the writer,its life experience reflected. As i say,you can't have a great writer without him having a lot of life experience. That is why we haven't had a great writer in like 50 years,most of them are mediocre and soulless. Also we have too many and the gems end up lost in the sea of shit that is modern day literature.

Yeah, not really. You’re told almost explicitly that while Harry is a good detective he’s also a terrible human person who lost his wife ‘cause of it (and judgin’ by the dreams and this phone call he also managed to fuck up her life pretty solidly as well), who lost respect of his co-workers ‘cause of it, who lost his life, self-respect and health ‘cause of it. He literally damaged himself beyond repair, and this full fall is a typical new start – when player finds him naked in his motel room.

Not really,they may have been annoyed by his fuck ups,but they decided to stood up by him and give him another chance. You don't get that shit if those people dislike you,in most dialogues with them it shows that they do care about him and see him as partner. Also i believe that she wasn't his wife,but a lover. They broke up and he went on a few months binge,which is too much even in my book . Also i don't get how he made her life miserable,must have mist it. From what i noticed their parting ways was pretty normal.

a mix of constant "imaginative" insults - like Neegan in TWD

Have no idea what that is lol. And yeah english really sucks when it comes to word flexibility,it is pretty poor and primitive language.

 

[Popiel]

When you put it like that,sure you could read it that way. Which is pretty much lost on me,since i am a straight forward man that aims to own up on his fuck ups and such. Which means that i assume that its normal for the world to be like that,to some extent and don't read that much. That said.....i really don't fully agree that the nameless one really deserve to end up in hell or not. Some of his reincarnations were pretty shit,but there were some that are good. Don't know if the evil outweighs the good.

I believe that it comes from outside the game – from Avellone The Man himself? – but we, I think, know that original sin of the Nameless One, his first self before the incarnation cycle kicked in, was so bad that it broke the Wheel somehow. And that’s why in the end he goes to the Blood War with a smile on his face.

That said i think that you overthink a bit when it comes to games.

Not really. Video games are rarely smart. There are few selected pieces which merit, I think, careful attention and analysis. Planescape and Disco both happen to be ones in my book.

Not really,they may have been annoyed by his fuck ups,but they decided to stood up by him and give him another chance. You don't get that shit if those people dislike you,in most dialogues with them it shows that they do care about him and see him as partner.

But that's what you earn through your actions in game. It’s clear that Disco wants to tell a story of a new beginnin’, a rebirth after literal and figurative blackest darkness (in which you literally drift at in the prologue). Before the game you earned only their distaste, dislike and distrust, even if some of them have/had some form of sympathy (and this one only ‘cause of how miserable you were as far as I remember). Even though game heavily forces you to play a rehabilitated human bein’ you can yet still fail at that, so there’s potential in the character for stayin’ a wreck.

Also i believe that she wasn't his wife,but a lover. They broke up and he went on a few months binge,which is too much even in my book . Also i don't get how he made her life miserable,must have mist it. From what i noticed their parting ways was pretty normal.

You're correct, she was his fiancee, not yet wife. What I wrote still stands though. She killed their unborn child for God's sake and blamed him, how fucked up he must have been to cause that ('cause game clearly suggests it was his fault, and I can believe that to a degree).

 

[fantadomat]

But that's what you earn through your actions in game. It’s clear that Disco wants to tell a story of a new beginnin’, a rebirth after literal and figurative blackest darkness (in which you literally drift at in the prologue). Before the game you earned only their distaste, dislike and distrust, even if some of them have/had some form of sympathy (and this one only ‘cause of how miserable you were as far as I remember). Even though game heavily forces you to play a rehabilitated human bein’ you can yet still fail at that, so there’s potential in the character for stayin’ a wreck.

Nah mate,he was not a full asshole before she left and the dead kid. That is why they gave him that much leeway,if he was a total scum nobody would have given him a new chance. Sure he was an asshole and a drunk to some extend,but he stood by his cop brothers and did right,also had some morals views. The game even points it out a few times,like when wondered if he was a sell out to the mafia,and it turns out that he is not. There are few times like this where you get the feeling that he had done right by people.

You're correct, she was his fiancee, not yet wife. What I wrote still stands though. She killed their unborn child for God's sake and blamed him, how fucked up he must have been to cause that ('cause game clearly suggests it was his fault, and I can believe that to a degree).

I don't think that he was actually responsible for the kid's lose. The game well written to have a more realistic view on those things. Women always blame men for everything wrong in their life,if he had literally killed the kid,the brake up would have been a lot worst than going different ways.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Sure if everyone is constantly "fucking" every three words,yeah it is a poor writing.

That's the thing, English lacks more colourful and diverse profanities. It's mostly about fuck and fucking, quite boring.

Very true. That's why I loved the Polish translation of South Park: the Movie. While in English there was only fuck fuck fuck fucking bitch, Polish translator transformed it into a masterpiece of delicious profanity.

 

[Butter]

To be fair, in Polish every word sounds like profanity.

 

[Lord_Potato]

To be fair, in Polish every word sounds like profanity.

And in German everything sounds like "Hands up, rebel scum!"

 

[fantadomat]

To be fair, in Polish every word sounds like profanity.

And in German everything sounds like "Hands up, rebel scum!"

With germans i have noticed that when they bark like rabid dogs,they are on friendly terms and when they talk lower and polite are about to beat the shit of each other. Really weird people.

 

[Lord_Potato]

To be fair, in Polish every word sounds like profanity.

And in German everything sounds like "Hands up, rebel scum!"

With germans i have noticed that when they bark like rabid dogs,they are on friendly terms and when they talk lower and polite are about to beat the shit of each other. Really weird people.

One beautiful German girl (yes, I was lucky to meet one of these) once explained to me that German language sounds like that only in certain accents. She claimed that in Westphalia it is much softer and nicer to the ear.

 

[fantadomat]

To be fair, in Polish every word sounds like profanity.

And in German everything sounds like "Hands up, rebel scum!"

With germans i have noticed that when they bark like rabid dogs,they are on friendly terms and when they talk lower and polite are about to beat the shit of each other. Really weird people.

One beautiful German girl (yes, I was lucky to meet one of these) once explained to me that German language sounds like that only in certain accents. She claimed that in Westphalia it is much softer and nicer to the ear.

So i take it her grandma was czech and her grandpa on the other side was hungarian with an austrian wife.

 

[Daedalos]

Slavs are retarded - the thread

 

[Raghar]

Sure if everyone is constantly "fucking" every three words,yeah it is a poor writing.

That's the thing, English lacks more colourful and diverse profanities. It's mostly about fuck and fucking, quite boring.

Very true. That's why I loved the Polish translation of South Park: the Movie. While in English there was only fuck fuck fuck fucking bitch, Polish translator transformed it into a masterpiece of delicious profanity.

Frankly small children are using fuck fuck fuck.

 

[fantadomat]

Slavs are retarded - the thread

Yet chad enough to seed your wife .

 

[Semiurge]

It is a shame that Roguey had gone down the road of screeching at people "REeeeeEEEE commie!!!!". At this point no different than a fucking sjws,fuck man,all americans are retarded.

And yeah roguey,people actually do talk like in the fucking game. It is clear that you haven't played the fucking game and just read a bunch of screenshots lol. Or you maybe you are socially awkward and have the experience lol.

No one talks like this in reality or most fiction. They talk like this on the internet.

What's with all the asterisks and quotemarks? Looks like written diarrhea.

 

[Roguey]

What's with all the asterisks and quotemarks? Looks like written diarrhea.

The asterisks are for emphasis instead of italics and quotemarks are for spoken dialogue.

 

[Semiurge]

What's with all the asterisks and quotemarks? Looks like written diarrhea.

The asterisks are for emphasis instead of italics and quotemarks are for spoken dialogue.

Well there's too many words emphasized, the dialogue loses its *impact*.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

What's with all the asterisks and quotemarks? Looks like written diarrhea.

The asterisks are for emphasis instead of italics and quotemarks are for spoken dialogue.

Which is really dumb, just use italics. They were used on mailing lists for emphasis(along with _underscores_) because we didn't have access to fancy shit like text markup.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I think people like Disco writing not only because it is good, but also because it is different from other games of this type. In a way that a Torment writing was different from Baldur's Gate or whatever.

I'm not saying that Disco is new Torment, but I'm saying that the distinction between Disco and Deadfire or Numenera writing (which is mostly an infinite wall of boredom you can totally predict, ekera) is comparable to the disctinction between Torment and *insert any mainstream fantasy RPG here*.

The point is, Disco has brand new unique setting, serious themes (interesting for target audience), unusual sense of humor, cool style. Remind you of anything? Updated my disco.