I am not trying to be overly critical here, but I wonder how the rest of you feel about some of the "silly" touches in many Stardock games? By silly, I am mostly talking about some of the text associated with techs and units in the GalCiv games and the hints of a similar tone in Elemental. Example: https://forums.elementalgame.com/376728 Here on the card for the character Lorina, the text reads "And I'm all out of gum...".
Now I do understand that not everything has to be serious and that a lot of people appreciate silly humor, but to me that kind of thing just kind of takes me out of the immersion of the game universe somehow? I don't know how many times in the 2 GalCiv games I would read thhrough the text of a technology breakthrough and see a couple little quips like that, and while it was never a huge deal or anything, I always kind of wished they used something a little more in character with the feel of the game world? Occasionally I did crack a smile or something when reading them, but mostly I usually wished for something more atmospheric instead.
Please don't feel the need to flame me for a simple opinion, but I am curious how the rest of you feel about this kind of thing? Do you prefer a lot of silly humor in strategy games, or would you prefer more atmosphere and immersion?
Thanks for your time.
It's a game; not a career-except for those developing it.
Games should be fun, and some humor goes a long way. If you want totally serious the last I saw the IRS was hiring.
Just my 5 cents.
I was just thinking about this very same thing recently, as it is one of my main gripes about the GalCiv games.I like humour. I like fun; that is why I play games. But I'm also one of those dorks who likes to be able to immersemyself as much as possible in whatever I am doing, and the jokey text in GalCiv, especially from the civs, is reallydistracting. It's a reminder that I am just playing a game, and almost like if you were reading a fantasy novel and having one of the characters refer to another as "dude." Not that extreme but a similar thing. That being said, there's no right or wrong answer here. I fully acknowledge that not everyone is that interested in investing themselves that much in a silly game, but I do hope it is toned down in Elemental.
I agree. Dark, witty, satirical ... usually said by NPCs on Quests, or in Dungeon-type locations, ect. Or NPC bosses even, maybe a merc or two (or wandering Champion).
I like being immersed in the environment and lore. I would like to let Blizzard retain the title for silly humour in fantasy games. I would like the comments dark, acerbic, morbid, fearful. At least in some places for Elemental. With hereditary rule, the Dynastic system and Factions this game can rise to great heights. Seems like Romeo and Juliet, MacBeth, Richard the III are just scripts/mods distance away.
Henry VIII?
still, the Idea of Shakespear in a High-Fantasy setting (as opposed to the Saxon/Briton dark-fantasy/low-fantasy of witches and superstition) with sorcerors, dragons, and powerful magical spells in the hands of Kings and Emperors ... I tend to think of Shakespear in another somewhat unsuited mechanism. Anime.
Have you ever seen Romeo and Juliet the Anime?? Im not saying it wont be "good" ... its just certainly not the same.
Humour's a high art and comic relief done well is very nice in many 'drama' contexts. A character with a dry or dark wit should say dry or darkly funny things sometimes.
Silliness, though, is a specific subset of humour. I admire it, and am myself a member of the Silly Party who has occasionally voted Very Silly.
I'm still glad to hear Brad say that the base game will not have the same kind of silliness that's peppered all around the GC2 interface.
I am not a fan of silly humor for silly humor's sake. Now what I like is witty humor and if done properly can be used in any context without taking away from the story or game. The problem is I think it is very hard to implement and get the phrasing correct but if you guys have the writers to do it I say go for it.
A story that is either all drama or all seriousness and no humor can tend to be bland. 24 the tv show is always intense, on the edge of your seat story and I find that to get very boring. I am a big fan of "The Malazan Book of the Fallen Series" by Steven Erickson and a big reason is his story writing. Drastic world changing events are occurring with apocalyptic tradgedies occuring all around but he has some very witty and dark humor smattered through out. It adds depth to the characters and the story itself.
Don't know how this would help the explanations of spells or troops but it would help the main story line.
GW my friend, it was an explosion of intuitive will and as such I was not in a short term/long term consequences frame of mind at the time. But yes, my first thought was for the spiders...I love the little guys, but 1000 huntsmen growing palm sized all over my room wasn't an option. I figure 100 probably eluded my grasp to contend with the mosquitoes.
Well, I got home from a hot day at work (labouring job) and was exhausted, so I crashed on my bed...woke up 10 mins later wondering why my whole body was ticklish. Muma huntsman it seems, had carried her brood onto me and decided to do a runner...as then did I
Thanks guys for all the great discussion here on this, and thanks Brad for your direct response as well. It is very refreshing to be able to have a discussion on a game you care about without it devolving into a hateful flame war. I cannot say how much I appreciate the atmosphere here and how people are actually willing to RESPECT each other's opinions..
I'm gonna throw in a vote for silly here (kind of pointless now, but oh well). Pop culture references are pushing the bounds, but adding a dash of the funny in here and there can greatly enhance a story, like how action movies have funny bits (but hopefully less so).
It's part of human nature to use humor as a coping mechanism-it's why we mock people we don't like, and why some of the funniest people I know have some of the worst lives. It's what we do.
Finally, there's precendent for having some funny in serious games. Age of Empires 2 (not anybody's idea of a barrel of laughs) had some great taunts and hilarious cheat codes. I can still remember sending over an "All hail! King of the LOSERS!" message after crushing an enemy's army.
As long as there is a 'magic pony' achievement i think either way will work. But little bits of funny are always good.
I do NOT like silly
But I DO like funny
"I am out of gum" is silly and breakes the mood
perk : +70% pop "Don't ask" is funny and does NOT break the mood.
You can have humor withing the limits of the story line and be quite funny without breaking the mood.
Just my 2c
At this point, we don't know if gum is some kind of spell component.
We need mostly serious in the game itself, which is good since that is basically what frogboy said, but someone should put together a slapstick mod with jokes crammed into everything. Would be great for a quick break from being all "Conquer the world" and stuff, to get a chance to cast things like 'rain of nachos' to make the other army move slower due to being too fat to run.
The corny jokes and puns should stick to mods.
And on an unrelated not, your avatar gets hotter every time i get on these forums, wintersong. Whats her secret?
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Yeah, I always felt the same way. Humor is ok but I would prefer it to stay in context with the game universe and not bring in references to the real world or get too silly. Definitely not a deal breaker but not my preference. At least we can mod the stuff out.
Am I the only one who gathers from the bolded part that Frogboy is bullshitting you guys...? Poking a little fun at you?
If it weren't for the book deal in progress, I'd certainly suspect a jape. He's been working with professional editors and publishers who are almost certainly sticklers for the distinctions between silliness and comic relief in an epic fantasy novel, and the market for fantasy novel silliness is a 'niche' kind of like TBS games...
I find the stuff to be a hoot but then I'm a bit insane any way.
As long as silly is serious, I'm all for it.
Silly shouldn't be "lolrandum" stupid-silly, it should be in the context of what is serious.
I.e, silly shouldn't downplay the seriousness.
... I'm almost positive that that made no sense whatsoever.
I APPROVE!
I really did not like it in GalCiv2.
It completely killed any interest I might have had at 'getting into' the universe, so I really don't care about the Drengin or Yor or whoever the races were, they were all just 3d models to be manipulated/squished underfoot.
Similarly I'd just stop reading the tech info, as it was invariably a mildly funny-to-unfunny quip about the technology.
Agreed, I started skipping reading it after a bit, though it wasn't really an issue, just not something I found which helped me want to go for deeper immersion. I'm not that worried about it, I prefer to have the required information, and anything else I can ignore or enjoy as it suits my tastes.
On a side note, has anyone played Kingdom: Elemental? Now that's a game with a sense of humor, though it's not exactly designed to be particularly serious in the first place...
I've never played GalCiv, but I like a little sillyness in a game. I liked the little touches in Rome: Total War... A few monty python lines hidden in a few select descriptions made for a nice laugh now and then.
Think back on the quest for glory series. Those games were loaded with puns and slapstick humor, and yet they still managed to be very serious and make you really care about the characters.
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