AM (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
godofthemachine) wrote2013-03-24 11:09 pm
godofthemachine) wrote2013-03-24 11:09 pm
Tumblr Rambling about the Video Game
Anonymous asked: If you wouldn't mind me asking, what exactly do you hate about the video game, and what direction would you have preferred to see it take?
Apologies for not answering this earlier. I wanted to have the time to sit down and actually give the answer this deserves.
Okay so basically, I absolutely adore Harlan Ellison’s short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Anyone who is friends with me on plurk or in the RPing scene knows that I am madly obsessed with it. AM is one of fiction’s greatest and most vicious villains, capable of delivering the most heinous of tortures, and the ending of the story is absolutely chilling.
The video game kind of takes this all and throws it out the window. In the story, AM was more of a quiet observer - he tortured his victims constantly, yes, but he didn’t have much to say. He gives a total of three lines in the story I believe: the famous hate speech, as well as “To hell with you,” and “But then you’re there, aren’t you?” Also he has his talkfields, but they all say the same thing: “I think, therefore I am” or “Cogito ergo sum.” (I might be wrong on this, apologies if I am.) Also it is mentioned that he tells the victims that he can kill that giant bird if they want. A total of three quotable lines, four talkfields that say the same thing, and a couple of references to him speaking.
In the video game, though, he doesn’t shut up. At all. Harlan Ellison’s voice acting for AM is…. well, I can’t listen to it without laughing. I listen to his rendition of the hate speech and I burst into laughter because of how ridiculous it is. A speech that is meant to deliver chills into those playing the game is just.. hilarious now. And that’s a major issue. I understand that it’s a video game and he needs to be interactive. I don’t have much of an issue with him talking to the victims and saying “Blah blah blah, exposition exposition these are your flaws and this is why I am torturing you.” So yes, I would expect him to speak more in the game than in the story.
But some of his lines just irk me. When he speaks to Ted and says “HEY TED YOU’RE MY FAVORITE” in that annoying voice, I cringe a little bit. In Benny’s scenario, he makes a reference to the Wizard of Oz by saying “Well you didn’t bring Toto…” Come on. It’s like you’re trying to have us not take it seriously.
Some of the scenarios were downright silly - Ted’s in particular. Retsupurae does an excellent commentary about it here. Yes I understand that the scenario was trying to play upon his love for Ellen (though that’s another issue in it of itself), but it’s just… so silly the way it’s done. Yes, his ultimate torture from AM is being offered several women to sleep with. Books to read. Stuff to do. Yes, what a great torture.
Another thing is the character’s backstories. I’ll talk about Ted first since he was the most developed in the story. It’s fairly clear in the story that he is not in love with Ellen, but for some reason the game makes it so. He also has terrible paranoia, but that’s not played upon too much in the game, even though that would have been probably a lot easier to make a scenario out of. Yes they touched upon it a little bit, but I felt like it was mostly brushed aside in favor of “Oh hey go help Ellen out since you’re in love with her and stuff.” Another was Benny - In the story it’s mentioned that he was a brilliant, handsome scientist who happened to be gay. None of that is present at all in his character. In fact they turned him into a soldier who offed his comrades. And he has a wife for some reason (though one of the writers later said that she was supposed to be a “beard’). The “brilliant, handsome scientist” could have easily been done, but they kind of tossed that out the window. It would have been easy to throw him as his ugly apelike self into some scenario where people ridicule him for not being handsome or something. I don’t know.
Then there’s Nimdok. Oh boy. Where do I begin with this one. The Holocaust is a tricky thing to deal with. Many games have dealt with it, and I do think that this game handled it decently. However… it felt so forced. I understand that Ellison wanted to make us not forget the atrocities that were committed back then. Nimdok was more of a blank slate character so I don’t have an issue with how they portrayed him other than the whole Holocaust thing feeling forced.
Gorrister I thought they handled well. I liked his scenario and he was one I sympathized with the most. Being mostly a blank slate character, they did a good job developing him. No issues really… except for the fact that he can carry Edna and Glynis in his pocket? Yeah okay. Also he was supposedly a philosopher, and I would have liked to see a bit with that. And then we have Ellen. I… honestly didn’t like her scenario. I feel like they tried too hard to make her out to be this high-functioning independent woman when honestly the story seemed to make her out to be not quite that way. Yes I understand, the story was written in 1967 and women’s rights were not quite what they are today so Ellen was portrayed as “weaker” than the others. But basically her traits in the story were that she cried and pleaded, was both abused and protected by the others, and she slept with all of the men even though she had supposedly been chaste before. None of that is at all present here. They could have done so much more with the rape backstory and tied it in with her personality in the short story, or… not had a rape backstory. (I don’t have an issue with the way they handle the rape in the game or her having a rape backstory though.)
Granted, the characters in the story, aside from Ted and AM, aren’t developed terribly well, so they could have taken many directions with them. But they could have at least used the small amount of characterization that was provided. I mean, seriously.
Also, I know I mentioned Harlan Ellison’s atrocious voice acting, but he wasn’t the only one. None of the voices in the game were good, except perhaps for Gorrister. Maybe Benny. I couldn’t take anything seriously at all.
And then the whole ending scenario. I appreciate that the “good” ending isn’t terribly great, but I feel like the whole thing with the id, ego, and superego is just…. dumb. Even though they represent three distinct sides of AM, I feel like they make him more one-dimensional in that sense. One is “blah blah blah I like torturing,” one is “I don’t want to die,” and the other is… fuck. I can’t even remember. So you see, not very memorable. They make it seem like AM only has three qualities to him when he is in actuality so much more complex. At least in the story.
The Russian and Chinese components made me cringe. I couldn’t stand their voices. I was also under the distinct impression that AM was one entity - yes, he was the culmination of three separate computers, but I figured whichever one was the dominant (the American one I guess) absorbed all of the knowledge of the other two, since it was only that one component that became self-aware. The other two were not self-aware! Not in the story! Granted this is mostly my interpretation, but… Come on. The whole thing with the Russian and Chinese was just… cringe-worthy. Also Surgat. What the hell was up with him? And the other components of AM that were trying to “help” the five victims (though they might have been parts of the Russian and Chinese, who knows).
So overall, I feel like the game takes a chilling story and turns it into a hilarious fiasco. I can’t take it seriously at all. An allegory of hell it is not. I don’t have a proper source for this, but I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that Ellison really didn’t like what happened with the game after a short time. Even if he did a lot of the writing for it, he probably realized “Oh crap I really destroyed my original story, didn’t I?”
I also livestreamed myself playing this game, and those who watched me play it agreed that it was kind of hilarious. They were all laughing during the hate speech too.
So a direction I’d love to see? Well, first of all, get decent voice actors. BBC Chillers did an excellent adaptation of the story for the radio in 2002. It’s not on Youtube that I can find, so I can’t really source it, but it was way better. Except that Ellison still voiced AM. Please for the love of god find someone else to do his voice. Maybe Tony Jay if he was still alive.
Second of all, have the victims interact with one another. That’s what they do in the story. The game would have probably been more interesting with them navigating AM’s complex together, dodging various tortures and whatnot. A journey to the ice caverns that ends in misery. It could make an interesting puzzle game. Or it could be about the war leading up to AM’s self awareness and the subsequent killing and torture.
Third of all, don’t turn AM into some ridiculous talkative asshole who spews pop culture references and does stupid accents. Make him creepier. He was not creepy in the game at all. He’s supposed to be creepy and horrifying - like I said, one of fiction’s most vicious villains.
Fourth of all - the music. I’m a musician and about to receive my masters in music performance, so maybe I’m a bit picky about that kind of thing, but some of the music was just… no. Bad. It’s entirely possible to make good music using 1995 technology. Look at Chrono Trigger, for instance. That game has amazing music. IHNMAIMS does not. In fact, I am going to write a god damned symphonic poem for it and give it the music it deserves.
I think I covered most of my points. I don’t hate the video game, but I’m not a fan. I appreciate it for introducing more people to the story, and for providing visuals for the characters so that I can draw stupid pictures of them.
Apologies for not answering this earlier. I wanted to have the time to sit down and actually give the answer this deserves.
Okay so basically, I absolutely adore Harlan Ellison’s short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Anyone who is friends with me on plurk or in the RPing scene knows that I am madly obsessed with it. AM is one of fiction’s greatest and most vicious villains, capable of delivering the most heinous of tortures, and the ending of the story is absolutely chilling.
The video game kind of takes this all and throws it out the window. In the story, AM was more of a quiet observer - he tortured his victims constantly, yes, but he didn’t have much to say. He gives a total of three lines in the story I believe: the famous hate speech, as well as “To hell with you,” and “But then you’re there, aren’t you?” Also he has his talkfields, but they all say the same thing: “I think, therefore I am” or “Cogito ergo sum.” (I might be wrong on this, apologies if I am.) Also it is mentioned that he tells the victims that he can kill that giant bird if they want. A total of three quotable lines, four talkfields that say the same thing, and a couple of references to him speaking.
In the video game, though, he doesn’t shut up. At all. Harlan Ellison’s voice acting for AM is…. well, I can’t listen to it without laughing. I listen to his rendition of the hate speech and I burst into laughter because of how ridiculous it is. A speech that is meant to deliver chills into those playing the game is just.. hilarious now. And that’s a major issue. I understand that it’s a video game and he needs to be interactive. I don’t have much of an issue with him talking to the victims and saying “Blah blah blah, exposition exposition these are your flaws and this is why I am torturing you.” So yes, I would expect him to speak more in the game than in the story.
But some of his lines just irk me. When he speaks to Ted and says “HEY TED YOU’RE MY FAVORITE” in that annoying voice, I cringe a little bit. In Benny’s scenario, he makes a reference to the Wizard of Oz by saying “Well you didn’t bring Toto…” Come on. It’s like you’re trying to have us not take it seriously.
Some of the scenarios were downright silly - Ted’s in particular. Retsupurae does an excellent commentary about it here. Yes I understand that the scenario was trying to play upon his love for Ellen (though that’s another issue in it of itself), but it’s just… so silly the way it’s done. Yes, his ultimate torture from AM is being offered several women to sleep with. Books to read. Stuff to do. Yes, what a great torture.
Another thing is the character’s backstories. I’ll talk about Ted first since he was the most developed in the story. It’s fairly clear in the story that he is not in love with Ellen, but for some reason the game makes it so. He also has terrible paranoia, but that’s not played upon too much in the game, even though that would have been probably a lot easier to make a scenario out of. Yes they touched upon it a little bit, but I felt like it was mostly brushed aside in favor of “Oh hey go help Ellen out since you’re in love with her and stuff.” Another was Benny - In the story it’s mentioned that he was a brilliant, handsome scientist who happened to be gay. None of that is present at all in his character. In fact they turned him into a soldier who offed his comrades. And he has a wife for some reason (though one of the writers later said that she was supposed to be a “beard’). The “brilliant, handsome scientist” could have easily been done, but they kind of tossed that out the window. It would have been easy to throw him as his ugly apelike self into some scenario where people ridicule him for not being handsome or something. I don’t know.
Then there’s Nimdok. Oh boy. Where do I begin with this one. The Holocaust is a tricky thing to deal with. Many games have dealt with it, and I do think that this game handled it decently. However… it felt so forced. I understand that Ellison wanted to make us not forget the atrocities that were committed back then. Nimdok was more of a blank slate character so I don’t have an issue with how they portrayed him other than the whole Holocaust thing feeling forced.
Gorrister I thought they handled well. I liked his scenario and he was one I sympathized with the most. Being mostly a blank slate character, they did a good job developing him. No issues really… except for the fact that he can carry Edna and Glynis in his pocket? Yeah okay. Also he was supposedly a philosopher, and I would have liked to see a bit with that. And then we have Ellen. I… honestly didn’t like her scenario. I feel like they tried too hard to make her out to be this high-functioning independent woman when honestly the story seemed to make her out to be not quite that way. Yes I understand, the story was written in 1967 and women’s rights were not quite what they are today so Ellen was portrayed as “weaker” than the others. But basically her traits in the story were that she cried and pleaded, was both abused and protected by the others, and she slept with all of the men even though she had supposedly been chaste before. None of that is at all present here. They could have done so much more with the rape backstory and tied it in with her personality in the short story, or… not had a rape backstory. (I don’t have an issue with the way they handle the rape in the game or her having a rape backstory though.)
Granted, the characters in the story, aside from Ted and AM, aren’t developed terribly well, so they could have taken many directions with them. But they could have at least used the small amount of characterization that was provided. I mean, seriously.
Also, I know I mentioned Harlan Ellison’s atrocious voice acting, but he wasn’t the only one. None of the voices in the game were good, except perhaps for Gorrister. Maybe Benny. I couldn’t take anything seriously at all.
And then the whole ending scenario. I appreciate that the “good” ending isn’t terribly great, but I feel like the whole thing with the id, ego, and superego is just…. dumb. Even though they represent three distinct sides of AM, I feel like they make him more one-dimensional in that sense. One is “blah blah blah I like torturing,” one is “I don’t want to die,” and the other is… fuck. I can’t even remember. So you see, not very memorable. They make it seem like AM only has three qualities to him when he is in actuality so much more complex. At least in the story.
The Russian and Chinese components made me cringe. I couldn’t stand their voices. I was also under the distinct impression that AM was one entity - yes, he was the culmination of three separate computers, but I figured whichever one was the dominant (the American one I guess) absorbed all of the knowledge of the other two, since it was only that one component that became self-aware. The other two were not self-aware! Not in the story! Granted this is mostly my interpretation, but… Come on. The whole thing with the Russian and Chinese was just… cringe-worthy. Also Surgat. What the hell was up with him? And the other components of AM that were trying to “help” the five victims (though they might have been parts of the Russian and Chinese, who knows).
So overall, I feel like the game takes a chilling story and turns it into a hilarious fiasco. I can’t take it seriously at all. An allegory of hell it is not. I don’t have a proper source for this, but I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that Ellison really didn’t like what happened with the game after a short time. Even if he did a lot of the writing for it, he probably realized “Oh crap I really destroyed my original story, didn’t I?”
I also livestreamed myself playing this game, and those who watched me play it agreed that it was kind of hilarious. They were all laughing during the hate speech too.
So a direction I’d love to see? Well, first of all, get decent voice actors. BBC Chillers did an excellent adaptation of the story for the radio in 2002. It’s not on Youtube that I can find, so I can’t really source it, but it was way better. Except that Ellison still voiced AM. Please for the love of god find someone else to do his voice. Maybe Tony Jay if he was still alive.
Second of all, have the victims interact with one another. That’s what they do in the story. The game would have probably been more interesting with them navigating AM’s complex together, dodging various tortures and whatnot. A journey to the ice caverns that ends in misery. It could make an interesting puzzle game. Or it could be about the war leading up to AM’s self awareness and the subsequent killing and torture.
Third of all, don’t turn AM into some ridiculous talkative asshole who spews pop culture references and does stupid accents. Make him creepier. He was not creepy in the game at all. He’s supposed to be creepy and horrifying - like I said, one of fiction’s most vicious villains.
Fourth of all - the music. I’m a musician and about to receive my masters in music performance, so maybe I’m a bit picky about that kind of thing, but some of the music was just… no. Bad. It’s entirely possible to make good music using 1995 technology. Look at Chrono Trigger, for instance. That game has amazing music. IHNMAIMS does not. In fact, I am going to write a god damned symphonic poem for it and give it the music it deserves.
I think I covered most of my points. I don’t hate the video game, but I’m not a fan. I appreciate it for introducing more people to the story, and for providing visuals for the characters so that I can draw stupid pictures of them.