You’ve probably seen it by now: the young heroine of the upcoming game Forspoken is flashing through empty squares and chopping bad guys into ash pillars, joking all the time. “So let me make this clear…” she begins, taking on the ironic, mocking tone of so many of today’s pop culture heroes. Add some mentions of “freaking dragons” and “killing jacked-up beasts”, and you have the makings of an instant internet meme.
It wasn’t long before people started making jokes at the expense of the ad. Content creator and voice actor ProZD was one of the first to spring into action:
FunnyWes from Bloodborne PSX has a funny take on the beloved game from FromSoftware:
And my personal favorite is this Tony Hawk themed post from BobVids:
As a whole, it’s tempting to laugh at these crazy memes and move on with our lives. After all, the gaming community will find something new and embarrassing to laugh about in the coming days. And since the game is still in the oven, we have no idea if this ad will reflect the final product. But to me, the deplorable writing in this ad speaks of a bigger problem in game production, one that’s been bubbling over the past five to 10 years. I’m referring to the abject “Jossification” that gaming has taken to the root, especially in the triple-A space.
If you play a lot of video games, you’ve probably noticed that the tone and character of big-budget blockbusters have been remarkably similar in recent years. Or, to put it less charitably, there’s an acute sense that many games settle for the generic rather than actually set themselves apart from the rest of the pack. The writing style of major video games is based on the sarcastic, joke-filled slump first popularized by Joss Whedon on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.
For example, compare the reveal trailers of the upcoming Saints Row and the delayed Arkane exclusive Redfall, each from about a year ago. Despite being very different in genre and overall presentation, the two games strike an eerily similar tone, filled with witty banter, non-sequiturs, visual jokes and – of course – loads of jokes. “Sleep tight,” our intrepid sniper says before blowing holes in five vampires. “Ugh, that’s SO unprofessional,” jokes one of our sweet losers when she learns that the gang they’re going to rob has shot the arms dealer delivering the goods.
Now there’s nothing wrong with injecting your game with a little levity. By their very nature, video games are often ridiculous, and well-timed humor can go a long way in eliminating some of the more annoying aspects of a long campaign. (And to be fair to these two games, they’re both much better written than that damned Forspoken ad.) But lately it feels like every game has the exact same sense of humor: violent, but not graphic; crazy, but not absurd; irreverent, but never transgressive. It’s not exactly clear what the objects of these punchlines are, except maybe the concept that someone is taking something seriously.
A reaction to this kind of smudgy, on-the-nose writing style has been brewing in some parts of the internet for quite some time, especially in movie communities. The heavy-handed criticism is perhaps best summed up in the recent memeification of the quip: “Well, that just happened!”
Despite the fact that this phrase doesn’t actually appear to appear in an actual Marvel movie, it has become an abbreviation for the clichéd, store-bought witticisms that certain people attribute to the MCU. The line itself is the essential ethos of The Avengers writer and director Joss Whedon: no matter what happened, we can make a stupid, referential joke at his expense and erase all dramatic tension instantly. (For the record, someone actually says, “He’s right behind me, isn’t he?” in Thor: Love and Thunder. That’s Taika Waititi for you.)
Whether you like this writing style will ultimately come down to personal taste. But even if you love something, there is an ultimate limit to that love. Nobody wants to eat pizza at every meal. For me, the biggest problem with leaning on Whedon-esque jokes all the time is that it robs any situation of commitment. Fear, anger, hate, love – it flattens all ends of human emotion into a smug grin and an ‘up yours’. Well-known 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 to put it.
Perhaps the most interesting case study in the industry’s ongoing Jossification came in 2018, when Destiny 2 killed off the fan-favorite Exo Cayde-6 in the Forsaken expansion. Voiced by frequent Whedon collaborator Nathan Fillion, Cayde-6 served as a walking embodiment of the game’s light-hearted writing style. Cayde’s death was perceived by many fans as a step towards a more serious style in line with the game’s weighty lore and deeper themes. The launch of Destiny 2 centered on the Cayde-6’s sense of humor, leading to a more elated tone shift that not every fan appreciated. Thanks to this move, Destiny has managed to explore more thoughtful territory in the Haunted’s trauma-focused season. Regardless of how you look at it, it was certainly interesting to watch a popular video game developer take the concept of useless prankster backwards and put two holes in its head.
As a whole, I don’t think video game writers should be aiming for another wave of grim and serious dialogue — or at least not all at once. However, I’d love to see more games take cues from well-written, humor-focused indies like Disco Elysium, Hades, and even Cruelty Squad. Disco Elysium’s newfound conceit of giving each of your character’s emotions a unique voice makes it stand out in the space, along with its propensity for the surreal. Cruelty Squad portrays an absurd, ugly world torn apart by capitalism and so thoroughly cynical that it manages to provoke a fit of laughter. And while Hades has quite a few Tumblr-y quips, each of its memorable characters has such a strong voice and personality that it manages to make the landing.
Not every game needs to be award-winning, but a little diversity in tone, genre, and humor would go a long way. This is a big part of why The Witcher 3 is such a good RPG, and I hope some developers learn from the example. The dialogue in this Forspoken ad may have sparked the ire of online jokers, but there’s nothing particularly bad or objectionable about it. Whedon-esque writing came across as cutting edge and fresh in its day, but time has passed and it now seems generic and hackneyed without proper treatment.
Regardless of how developers feel about this style, it’s clear that there’s quite a bit of the audience ready to poke fun at its excesses every now and then. So if you’re writing video games, you better hone your one-liners, because the content creators are coming for you.
The real tragedy of this whole debacle is that the imagery of Forsaken in the ad looks quite appealing, at least by the standards of today’s big budget open world games: lively traversal options, satisfying combat. If only Square Enix had uploaded a version without sound.
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