Why so little humour in video games?

[urquhart]

I've been a big fan of adventure games since 1982, when I played the text-based adventure Dungeon on a DEC-10. I thought The Book of Unwritten Tales was just great. I loved the humour and the references to Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc. etc. All in all, one of the best adventure games I've played. The puzzles were challenging, without being frustrating.

Currently FPS games dominate the market, and the lack of humour in them is very depressing. The only recent games I recall that have some humour are Serious Sam, Duke Nukem Forever (that unfortunately grossed people out with its over-the-top sexist jokes) and Half-Life 2 (a few very mild jokes). Adventure games seem to be the last refuge of humorous narrative in games.

Anyway, I loved the game. More please!

[amok]

You're so right. Besides KING Art, it's mostly coming from LucasArts alumni (Telltale, Double Fine, Ron Gilbert's DeathSpank). Daedalic Entertainment comes to mind too, as well as some of the Sierra-inspired projects (the Leisure Suit Larry remake, Quest for Infamy and SpaceVenture).

As for one liners, Borderlands and Left 4 Dead are up there with Serious Sam and Duke.

There's also humour to be found in the mechanics of some games, such as Worms and Magicka.

But I do agree with you, most games have far too little humour in them and I really did struggle to find these examples.

[Silvan]

Please don't forget Portal 2, you guys!

Edit: I don't know hat you're talking about. ;) Sorry, my internet connecting is acting extraordinarily weird right now.

[inolle]

Though i agree that there used to be more funny games in the past there are still plenty. Book of unwritten tales obviously, portal franchise, l4d, unepic, trine franchise has some good laughs, there are plenty more on my mind but in truth it really boils down to whats funny to you a joke thats hilarious to me might not even cause a smirk for you

[Alcwathwen]

I loved this game for that too, but actually, Dragon Age I has quite some humor going on through the seriousness as well!

[urquhart]

Thanks for tips on games with humour! I'll check them out. Portal 2's humour was excellent, I agree. It does seem though, that adventure games and puzzle games are the last refuge of humour. Perhaps FPS developers think their story will collapse if they include some jokes? I laughed myself silly at a joke in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, though it wasn't really all that funny.

[ꝒinkꝔanther]

May I add Far Cry 3 - Blood Dragon, it's an open-world FPS, kind of Duke Nukem Forever without sexism. A warning though: Its save system needs getting used to, otherwise it might be frustrating, check the forums about it. But otherwise I liked it very much, also because of its humor!

[K-C]

I loved the humour and references in this game too and share your opinion that there are far too few games like this today. Other than the other games mentioned in this thread, the Broken Sword games are well worth playing for a bit of point-and-click humour too (and there's a new one due to come out in October-ish!)

[RighteousNixon]

Sure, there are other games that have humor but when looking at the market as a whole, its pretty damn rare. maybe 1 out of every 30 games that get released have any sort of humor in it. Of course, your not going to get humor in sports games, racing games or fighting games (for the most part) so that skews the numbers a bit. Even so, its still a pretty rare commodity in gaming these days. Everything is just so serious and I notice it all the time. Its one of the reasons why adventure game have always been my favorite genre of games. There is more humor in Day of the Tentacle then I have seen in this entire generation of console gaming, lol. We did just see a new Lesuire Suit Larry version released so that was nice.

The gaming indutry definitely needs to lighten up a bit and add more humor to the game market.

[amok]

I agree with that RighteousNixon, but I'm also a huge fan of deep, serious titles. The turn off is shallowness, which is most of them.

[saluteyourshorts]

I've played lots of funny games recently. The Ratchet and Clank series, Portal 2, Demon's/Dark Souls just to name a few. The MGS games are also pretty funny in the way that break the 4th wall.

[Pokshayka]

Wait, HUMOUR? "buys game instantly"

[CBCRonin]

Borderlands for sure, but Borderlands 2 I found quite dark. In one the humour permeated the game, in Borderlands 2 it simply sat on the surface of some incredibly painful situations.

[mikeydsc]

Give Double FInes STACKING a go, its a one of a kind lil gem, with great humor also. Nice puzzles too, loved em.

[MusicforMovies]

Love this game.. reminds me of the joys of Space Quest.

[Jhoonaz]

its been really good game so far, played 14h and gona start chapter 4 soon