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Comments
Aww, but the rules of John Dies At The End are one of the scariest things about the book. Sure the mastermind evil thing's true identity isn't as scary as he made himself out to be, but the nature of the setting allows for him to be the tip of a mindscarringly huge and traumatic iceberg. And I hope he was, because book two is comin' out just in time for Halloween. : D
Anyway, I think I'm not getting across what I mean, because the Pyramid Head Everywhere problem is part of why I think consistent setting canon is important.
If the town's less savoury inhabitants reenact psychotic rituals by attracting the victims and toying with them, then it might be plausible for Pyramid Head to appear in a non-specifically-tailored context, because the internal drama of the lead character is incidental to the wider goal of the antagonists, and those stories in which he appears in a non-sexual guilt context can still be considered to have happened, just like how zombies can mean whatever Other we currently make out to be inhuman.
If, however, there's a rule that says each experience is unique because the normal side of Silent Hill is the only real side and every crazy thing that supposedly happens to people with dark secrets who visit the place is the result of psychic shenanigans, then there's a way to prevent gratuitous fanservice in canon works. In the absence of rules like these, there's just chaos that leads to fewer scares in the end because of familiarity, like how Deadpool is less funny when you see him fucking everywhere.
The player doesn't have to be told these things, but these things still need to be known to the people making the shit.
@Nuzlockes:
Man, back in the TVT thread for Pokemon whenever someone brought up Nuzlockes there was always an argument that followed. I never got what was wrong with self-imposed challenges myself.
I've never done a Nuzlocke, though: largely because I always instinctively buy Revives and I don't want to waste those.
The Pyramid Head problem is less of an issue with consistent setting and more of an issue with people superficially not understanding the point of the character.
And if you need to explain everything out in great detail, well then we go back to the problem of the quantifiable and familiar.
In Silent Hill 1-4, generally agreed to be the gems of the franchise, the only guiding thing is different experiences. There was the cult, sure. But Harry's experience was way different from James, which was different from Heather's.
The problem isn't a lack of consistent canon, the problem is superficial storytellers who don't understand the story. The pointless inclusion of Pyramid Head in Homecoming and the movies was pretty bad but it was only a symptom of the basic misunderstanding of psychological themes of the franchise.
The only case of rules I can think of being openly scary are banes like 'don't eat the food' in Pan's Labyrinth just because there's the tension of knowing the rules will be broken.
^^^ Basically, what you're saying is there should be very loose rules that at least keep it vaguely thematically consistent?
Eh, my version of "self-imposed challenge" is playing an Avenged Sevenfold song in Audiosurf or Symphony on normal difficulty settings.
Beat Half-Life 2: Episode 1 with the "The One Free Bullet" achievement (Fire only one bullet throughout the game. Which oddly, includes crossbow bolts, but not rockets).
Probably because you have to use rockets to kill a Strider at the end.
Yeah, I know, it just seemed silly. On the plus side, it makes the entirety of Exit 17 much easier, since you get infinite rockets. Also have to take down a gunship with them.
The arguments over Nuzlocke runs are basically challenge gaming vs. comfort gaming arguments.
@Icalasari: Exactly. I'm not saying that any of this has to be All There In The Manual, I just prefer writers who know what's what about their own series. Hirano Kota is a tit obsessed loon who half the time just makes shit up on the fly, it looks like, but he understands his strong points as a writer and plays them to the hilt by giving himself leeway in the areas where he needs it and never losing sight of what he wants to say. Even if it's just increasingly inventive variations on "it's been awhile" in Adachi ward dialect.
^^ Yeah.
I find people arguing against it rather stupid. I mean it's just a different way to play a game. What's wrong with it?
Jesus Christ, this new mode they added to osu! is really difficult. All those D's and C's
Yeah, it's really hard. I'm failing so much. It's fun though. I didn't know it was even being worked on, so it was a huge surprise when they added it.
I find nuzlockes to be pretty fucking dumb to be honest. It's like an unfun way to play the game with completely arbitrary rules. And then there are the people who have to go out and make a stupid shitty comic about it.
different strokes yada yada yada
It started out as a comic though.
And the idea is that the single-player gameplay is ordinarily extremely easy and therefore boring for a lot of people, and so it's a way of making the game more challenging and different.
> I just prefer writers who know what's what about their own series
But the initial four Silent Hill games do, hence them all being incredibly solid story and scare-wise. It's when the developers switched hands that things got out of control, because they wanted to appeal to superficial demographics of fan-pleasing.
Also, having a basic understanding of a setting is different from having actual rules laid down.
Also, as much as I enjoy Hellsing it pretty much depends on fiats and Alucard just being too legit to be beat, which is not exactly tight writing. Not to mention it's an action series with gothic set-dressing rather than anything resembling horror.
So Nintendo makes an advertisement with an Olympic gymnast playing Mario, with the simple statement "I am not a gamer" at the end. Cue people bitching about how they're directly insulting the "hardcorz." Color me surprised.
So does anyone notice a trend here that any time someone who doesn't play Mega Man on the NES 24/7 calling themselves a gamer is "faking it", and that's insulting, and then whenever someone says they're a casual gamer, or that they're just not a gamer, that's also insulting?
It's almost like they're looking for a reason to be offended and act persecuted. But that would never happen, right?
Because there's an objective way to define "fun", amirite?
Aw, but that's what makes it so funny! Watching all the attempts at drama is hilarious once you realize they're BAAAAWing about a few pixels on a screen.
Of course not, the typical gamer certainly never has to try and look for ways others have privilege over them! The hardcorz are the truly oppressed.
Because a game having emotional impact is a horrible, horrible thing.
See, I can make myself sound right by being sarcastic too.
So...Salman Rushdie is a gamer. Huh.
^^It's not that that's a bad thing, it's just that most of the time attempts at making it sad to the viewers fall flat on their face.
I mean it's your Pokemon. You trained it, and hell I don't know who wouldn't feel bummed if the rules dictated that you had to box something you spent good time on. But the thing is, other people don't know what it feels like. It takes skill to make people feel a fraction of what you feel, and I don't think it's possible to have someone empathize with you wholly.
Of course it feels sad to you, but that doesn't mean other people will find it poignant in the least. That's the biggest mistake of most people who do Nuzlocke runs: they assume that others will feel the same degree of loss and sadness they do.
Also acting snide and condescending is a great way to criticize someone for acting snide and condescending.
Yeah, it's not like games like Spec Ops: The Line exist or anything.
Presentation, blah.
Also, the comics don't always rely on making you feel sad to be good. Myths of Unova is a decent Nuzlocke comic that doesn't rely on that, instead expanding slightly on the mythos of the series. There are several moments where you may feel sad, but it doesn't dwell on it for long.
The original Nuzlocke comic wasn't just about the loss of the pokemon on the team, although it weighed heavily on Ruby as time went on. It was about his journey and the friendships he made along the way. And how his desire to be something he wasn't nearly blew up in everybody's faces, because lol, actions have consequences.
The best Nuzlocke comic I've seen had the player lose the tutorial battle. It was pretty hilarious.
Hell yeah, I like Kynim too. She's right up there with Pettyartist in my list.
I also like how she tries to expand on the mythos, but I can't help but find the part where she loses three of her Pokemon to a grinding accident partially amusing. The other part is empathy, because fuck those Sawks were annoying. But I digress.
I suppose that presentation is also a big part of it. However, "grief" for your dead Pokemon can also interfere with presentation. There's a fine line between a sense of genuine sorrow and overdramatic theatrics, and most of the time Nuzlockers cross this line.
I like how Petty tried to give some of her Pokemon a bit of personality to make the viewers feel a connection with them. I also like how she didn't portray Gary as a horrible soulless creature despite the fact that he killed her Lapras and instead made him a jealous kid who was blinded to the consequences of his actions.
Contrast it with Hale, who just throws in a few ragefaces/memes to give his 'mons "personality" and expected us to feel sorry for them when they died.
JHall's? That was pretty funny, and it addressed some problems I have with Nuzlocke comics in general at the end too. Of course, it did reek of "buttranged fanboy" at the end, but he's JHall.
-looks it up-
Nope. The one I'm talking about is like five panels total.