In response to “Team Roomba” from The Escapist Forum: I discovered Roomba’s videos a while back whilst searching for some of Valve’s official selection on YouTube. Unlike griefers from other games, Roomba seem to have a unique and charming style about their idiotic ways which makes them that little more bearable to watch. Certainly, some of their acts of insanity are cringe-worthy (especially when the other players react via mics, loudly) but overall they give a better ‘performance’ than hundreds of other mediocre sadists from around the Internet. Their teamwork, timing and knowledge of the game (glitches and all) are definitely to be admired by fans of the videos and hardcore gamers alike.
Still hate to play with ’em, though.
– Melaisis
***
In response to “Hey Baby, What’s Your Sign?” from The Escapist Forum: I guess it’s wrong to say an FPS can’t have comedy in it but it is pretty one-sided. Crude jokes, explosions…fun stuff but there’s only room for so much.
In an adventure game people talked, and even more impressively people around you weren’t shot all the time. It made it so you could have a lot of word play and clever humor like Monkey Island and all the other adventure games. How can an FPS compare with a gag like in ‘Leisure Suit Larry 3’ when you go inside the magic door and walk out into Sierra studios and they’re filming games? How many people are going to even pick up on it if they aren’t forced to slow down and read?
FPS, by their twitchy nature, make it so you’re not really paying attention to the world around you because you’re dodging bullets and shooting all the time. Hell, Bioshock gives away the plot twist when you’re walking around the theater district. You just have to look for it on the posters. Did anyone notice?
– L.B. Jeffries
***
In response to “The Ludicrous” from The Escapist Forum: I’m not convinced of the “new” comedy as being that radically different from its historical counterparts. Comedic characters work when we can empathize & relate to them while remaining aloof & not personally identifying ourselves with them. David Brent is hilarious when he represents a overexagerated parody of your boss, but when someone says “hey, he’s just like you” suddenly the joke isn’t so funny anymore. Similarly when the character-audience connection isn’t there, you get something like The Worst Week of My Life, where the jokes would be hilarious if in The Office, but made this show just feel like an awkward version of Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.
– Cousin_IT
***
In response to “My Friends are Funnier Than Your Writers” from The Escapist Forum: Friends and I would play the Grand Theft Auto games for hours and hours and hours without ever doing anything the game asked us to do. Seeing who could last the longest at 6 stars made for some especially hilarious scenarios.
One of our favourite things to do, though, was to park a car at the top of a ramp. Then grab a motorcycle and launch off the ramp. Hitting the car at the top would send the motorbike into the most ridiculous spins and rolls, and we could do it for hours straight giggling every single time.
Everyone calls GTA a sandbox game, but I wonder how well a game would do that was literally just a sandbox. No plot. No characters. No missions. Just a massive arena filled with as many comedic elements as possible.
– arrr_matey
