![]() Disco Elysium's novel conceit of giving each of your character's emotions a unique voice makes it stand out in the space, along with its bent towards the surreal. However, I would like to see more games take cues from well-written humor-focused indies like Disco Elysium, Hades, and even Cruelty Squad. Regardless of how you view it, it was certainly interesting to see a popular video game developer take the concept of idle quippery out back and put two holes in its head.Īs a whole, I don't think that video game writers should strive to institute a new wave of grim and serious dialogue-or at least, not all at once. Thanks to this move, Destiny has managed to explore more thoughtful territory in the trauma-focused Season of the Haunted. ![]() ![]() At Destiny 2's launch, Cayde-6's sense of humor was front and center, leading to a more Jossified tone shift that not every fan appreciated. Cayde's death was taken by many fans as a move towards a more serious style in line with the game's weighty lore and deeper themes. Voiced by frequent Whedon collaborator Nathan Fillion, Cayde-6 served as a walking embodiment of the game's lighthearted writing style. Perhaps the most interesting case study in the ongoing Jossification of the industry came in 2018, when Destiny 2 killed off fan-favorite Exo Cayde-6 in the expansion Forsaken. Fear, anger, hate, love-it flattens all the extremities of human emotion into a smug grin and an "up yours." Noted horror writer Gretchen Felker-Martin recently described Whedon's style as "rolling your eyes at the most profound visions of ecstasy and horror the universe has to offer," and I think that's a great way of putting it. ![]() For me, the main problem with leaning on Whedon-esque quippery all the time is that it robs every situation of stakes. Nobody wants to eat pizza for every meal. Still, even if you love something, there's an ultimate limit to that love. Whether you enjoy this style of writing will ultimately boil down to personal taste. (For the record, someone does actually say, "He's right behind me, isn't he?" in Thor: Love and Thunder. The line itself is the essential ethos of The Avengers writer and director Joss Whedon: No matter what just happened, we can make a dumb referential joke at its expense and instantly erase all dramatic tension. "Uhhh, well.THAT just happened!" - one of the Eternals, /ac0we6Cz05 - Jesse Hawken October 26, 2021ĭespite the fact that this phrase doesn't actually seem to appear in any actual Marvel movie, it's become a shorthand for the cliche, shopworn quips that certain people ascribe to the MCU. "Ugh, that is SO unprofessional," one of our loveable losers quips upon learning that the gang they're about to rob shot the arms dealer delivering the goods. "Sleep tight," our intrepid sniper says before blowing holes in five vampires. Despite being very different in genre and overall presentation, the two games strike an eerily similar tone, filled with witty banter, non-sequiturs, visual gags, and-of course-lots and lots of quips. The writing style of big video games has settled on the sarcastic, quip-filled malaise first popularized by Joss Whedon on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.įor example, compare the reveal trailers of the upcoming Saints Row and the delayed Arkane exclusive Redfall, each from about a year ago. ![]() Or, to put it a less charitable way, there's an acute sense that a lot of games are settling for the generic instead of actually differentiating themselves from the rest of the pack. If you play a lot of video games, you've probably noticed that the tone and character writing of big-budget blockbusters have become remarkably similar in recent years. I'm referring to the abject " Jossification" that has taken hold of gaming at its root, especially in the triple-A space. But, to me, the regrettable writing in this ad speaks to a greater problem in game production, one that has been bubbling for the past five to 10 years. And since the game is still in the oven, we have no idea if this ad will reflect the final product. After all, the game community will find something new and embarrassing to laugh at in the next few days. E6Xh8Vl7XJ - □ bob □ August 10, 2022Īs a whole, it's tempting to laugh at these goofy memes and move on with our lives. ![]()
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