dogg I'm just so exhausted of video games being all mopey and tragic
clarification: I don't mind things being sad, or even being tragic; it's inarticulate, ill-considered tragedy that bugs me
@hystericempress This is a really interesting distinction, though. Do you mind taking a moment to detail what separates the two? Is it, like, the arbitrariness of a badly written tragedy, the sense that the universe is just too absurdly cruel to take seriously and it keeps you from commtting to characters and their fates? 'Cause I do get that a lot, and it does really keep me from bonding with a work...
(She says as she watches a Pinter play tho'...)
@zebratron2084 it's something kind of unique to the medium, I think; video game narratives tend to have tragedy in a very different form from a play or movie or book because the player is meant to directly interact with it. the tragedy is aimed, often, at the player more than the characters, which means if it isn't well-considered, it can come off like the writers being cruel just to awkwardly yank at heartstrings. you have to hit a VERY narrow line to avoid that.
@zebratron2084 also, due to the relative youth of video games as a medium, sometimes... writers conflate 'unhappiness' with 'depth.' a good example of something not falling into that trap recently would be Bugsnax, which deals with actually some quite complex emotional themes without ever coming across as morose or brooding.
@hystericempress Good answers, thanks sis! If you don't mind another round of questions... Can you give me an example of a game that *really* failed horribly at this? I think I'm starting to imagine what you mean but I'd love to see an exaggeratedly bad example to really clarify, also because i'm stoned and bored :)
@zebratron2084 Limbo is one of those games everybody hailed as some kind of critical masterpiece of design, but... in actual practice, to me it felt like a klutzy platformer concealing a lack of both narrative and mechanical depth under a cloak of moody, generic darkness that literally does end on a 'and the children were dead the WHOOOOOOLE time!' bargain-bin Outer Limits twist. The gaming press collectively flipped their shit for it but it left me UTTERLY cold.
@hystericempress I'm all of 30 seconds into a playthrough and I'm already getting terminal Lonely Death of Got-No-Legs Boy vibes out of it...
@zebratron2084 Credit where credit is due, I do think their subsequent work, Inside, does a MUCH better job by leaning into a more 'gnawing dread' kind of existential horror that puts some real texture onto the mood. But Limbo feels like a sophomore work that got way, WAY overpraised for how ridiculously basic it actually is.
Limbo spoiler
@hystericempress I thought it was admirably bold of them to have that ultra-abrupt and fraught ending. I can see how some people could be very fulfilled by a game like this. Personally, I... it just gave me Seattle-climate flashbacks. No thanks. ;)
