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Comment by hmexx | Hacker News Reader

1) Video game humor is typically way worse than the humor in non-interactive media (interactivity has a price).

2) Humor evolves/improves over the years

Combine the two, and you would be hard-pressed to find ANY game that old which is still considered funny. Maybe "Day of the tentacle" ? I'd have to load it up again to check. it stuck out for me.

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> Video game humor is typically way worse than the humor in non-interactive media

Perhaps, but I had a lot of laughs finding great humor in Leisure Suit Larry I/II/III/V, Space Quest III, Monkey Island 2, and Day of the Tentacle.

I think adventure games enable different ways to create humor.

Played DoTT when new, hysterical. Played recently, still funny.

That’s just me though.

And me. I also still laugh about all the silly jokes in Sam'n'Max and You don't know Jack.

A lot of the Fallout dialog holds up with its absurdity and gallows humor but I think you're right overall.

This is probably something games are still exploring as a medium, but I think designers are finding ways to show humour with game mechanics. An example might be a funny setting in Halo's Forge mode, or something crazy resulting from random elements in the new Zelda, or messing up in Surgeon Simulator. The interactivity makes the comedy personal in a special way, and I don't think books or film can quite repeat that.

I'll admit that older games don't quite have that je ne sais pas though. It seems like a thing we're more keen on nowadays, especially with stuff like streaming or roguelike elements coming back into vogue.

DotT holds up, played it a few months ago. Grim Fandango, too!

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