Googleshng: Moving on, our next topic concerns the place for humor in RPGs. We generally have an all or nothing situation, getting a complete angst-fest, or the occasional pile of silliness. Do you think we need more moderation in this area?

Drethelin: What we need is balance. Intelligent storyline with elements of humor. A good example would be a Terry Pratchett book, if anyone has read those.

Googleshng: I think the Lunar games do a pretty good job of keeping things light-hearted without becoming completely silly. As does Skies of Arcadia.

Susan: I love Terry Pratchett.

Bartkusa: A well-written story balances all elements, and evokes all emotions. At the very least, it hits on more than one or two apiece.

Drethelin: Yes.

Susan: I think there should be more middle-of-the-road games, but there's a place for ones to either side.

Brian: I think there needs to be a ton more humor in games. Example: Disgaea. It has a real story (even if it is a wee bit shallow), and plenty of parodies, pervertedness, and general hilarity. Any lack in story is made up fully by the amusing progression of the game.

Susan: Sometimes I need unadulterated silliness, and sometimes I'm just in the mood for high drama.

Bartkusa: There are exceptions for everything. Earthbound was extremely silly. I can't think of any reason to like the game, besides it's goofy humor. This is a thorn in my side, as I frequently whine about how a good RPG is based on good gameplay.

Zack: I think that in a primarily heavy-hearted adventure, a moment or two given over to lightening the load on a players mind can be a wonderful help. I hate to go all academic here, but like a Shakespearean tragedy, the fourth act is given over to lifting the haze of drama so the final chapter can crush the hopes of the reader.

Bartkusa: If you harp on one element or theme too much, you end up numbing the audience.

Googleshng: I'd love to see more games as silly as Disgaea myself. Angst, personality disorders, and the destruction of the world get quite old.

Susan: But... but... angst is fun!

Zack: Disgaea has its complete lack of serious foreground events at the core of why the game is so fun, in my opinion.

Googleshng: The silliness spilling into the game design helps too.

Brian: Then again, there aren't too many plots that really crushes game players' hopes at any point... well, except when Aeris died. I hope I didn't just spoil anything for anyone.

Googleshng: I'd like to call your attention to Final Fantasy VI, Brian.

Susan: It really depends on where a game is trying to go.

Brian: I dunno. Through my playing of FFVI, I never felt crushed.

Susan: What about the "Oh spork, the world just ended" bit?

Brian: When I say I felt nothing, I felt nothing o.o

Googleshng: FF6 and Phantasy Star 2 are the only instances I can think of where the world actually manages to come to an end, and the former actually makes you play through a suicide scene just after. Assuming you can't pull off that fish mini-game at least.

Susan: UGH! That FISH mini game! I HATED that. I'd spend hours catching excellent fish for Cid, and then the bastard would go and die ANYWAY! I mean, were my fish not GOOD enough to save Cid? Must Trojan-boy die ANYWAY despite my wasting precious moments of my life trying to catch just the right fish to save his laminated yellow ass?!

Bartkusa: I played FFVI many years after it's release. It's hard to take sprite operas and sprite-based armaggedon seriously, after seeing 3d models and textures and all that.

Googleshng: That's a line of logic I've never quite followed. Does it make characters more personable when they have various spikey outcroppings and cubical hands?

Zack: I don't understand it either, but arguing about the virtues of graphical superiority isn't the topic at hand.

Googleshng: Once again we're getting a bit off track here. Of course, bleak as FF6 got, it still had plenty of humorous moments.

Zack: Ultros.

Susan: Yay! I still cherish my Uncle Ulty plushy.

Googleshng: Exactly. Kefka too early on.

Brian: Bloody persistent...!

Susan: You son of a submariner!

Googleshng: So then, would everyone agree that even when you have an excessively grave story to tell, all RPGs should lighten things up now and again?

Susan: Not necessarily.

Susan: It depends on the game. I think sometimes humor would just be inappropriate.

Drethelin: Maybe not with humor, but possibly with hope, or some sort of brightness.

Brian: Only at appropriate times. You don't want to go from the verge of tears to cracking up. It's emotional whiplash!

Googleshng: That much is true.

Zack: A lot of games seem to have the pathetic, and thus funny, villain in them. Skies of Arcadia had Alphonso. FF6 had Ultros. Magic Knight Rayearth had the entire antagonist end of the cast...

Susan: The type of humor matters as well. In a dark game, you don't want silly random poingy humor. You want dark irony. Fits without ruining the mood.

Brian: What, Disgaea was technically a pretty dark game with that sort of humor.

Susan: I personally don't think villains should be funny. Not the main villains anyway. Villains should actually seem like they could do damage.

Googleshng: Uh, no it wasn't. Being about demons does not automatically make something dark.

Drethelin: I agree on the villain thing. You might have a funny subvillain, but the main badguy should never be funny.

Susan: And the bumbling sidekick villain is an overdone theme.

Googleshng: True enough that.

Zack: Overdone, but almost a part of the RPG forumla nowadays.

Susan: I do not honestly believe that a REAL villain would tolerate bumbling incompetents in his rank.

Googleshng: That makes for a nice little segue, Zack, but before we move on, does anyone have any final thoughts on this matter?

Bartkusa: Suffice it to say that comedy and tragedy color a story like pigments a painting. Each has it's separate shades, and the two have the capacity to complement each other. Of course, there are monochrome paintings out there....

Susan: Colors are pretty, humor is good, but don't make a main villain silly or I'll chop off your effing head!

Brian: ... Don't insult my Kefka.

Susan: Kefka doesn't count. he was a scary mofo at the end.

Zack: Go Dodgers!