Poll: Did you really feel sorry for the Companion Cube?

[chozo_hybrid]

I saw the point of the joke. It made the incinerator funnier.

I'm not sure what the joke is supposed to be? Care to explain? It'd be much appreciated ^____^

 

[Booze Zombie]

Not really, no.

 

[SimuLord]

I saw the point of the joke. It made the incinerator funnier.

I'm not sure what the joke is supposed to be? Care to explain? It'd be much appreciated ^____^

It's a fourth wall break, at least as I see it. The whole thing takes the notion of a player becoming attached to a character, turns it on its ear, then pretends to play it straight. Because Portal is, after all, a self-referential joyride through the common tropes of video game writing...and that's what makes the writing in that game so good.

 

[Mr.Mudkip]

The reason I voted yes, and consequently feel sorry for it, is the same reason I can't be a jerk in any morality based game. It's simply my heart, my foolish human heart.

 

[Zhukov]

No.

I thought it was clever and amusing and whatnot, but I didn't think I was actually meant to feel sorry for a cube.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I saw the point of the joke. It made the incinerator funnier.

I'm not sure what the joke is supposed to be? Care to explain? It'd be much appreciated ^____^

It's a fourth wall break, at least as I see it. The whole thing takes the notion of a player becoming attached to a character, turns it on its ear, then pretends to play it straight. Because Portal is, after all, a self-referential joyride through the common tropes of video game writing...and that's what makes the writing in that game so good.

Ah okay, that makes sense. Thank you very much for that I do love the game and it's writing, but it's one of the few things I just didn't get.

 

[Thaius]

Due to the misunderstanding that is the question, I will not answer in the poll.

I did not feel sorry for the companion cube: it's an inanimate object, and feels no pain. Rather, I was just sad. I had grown connected to my companion cube, and I didn't want to burn the thing. I wasn't sad for it, I was sad for myself.

 

[SimuLord]

The reason I voted yes, and consequently feel sorry for it, is the same reason I can't be a jerk in any morality based game. It's simply my heart, my foolish human heart.

C'mon, it wasn't Megaton you were destroying there.

(as an aside, my first realization that my ex-wife was an airhead masquerading as a geeky intellectual was when she completely missed the point of Portal's writing---she couldn't comprehend what the game was trying to accomplish so she just went back to playing Team Fortress 2, Starcraft, and WoW.)

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

No, I didn't feel bad. I didn't hesitate for longer than it took me to see the place to pitch the cube. In fact, if I had to assign an emotion to the cube it would be one of smug self-satisfaction when I got to throw it into the fire, because an otherwise simple puzzle was made a bit annoying trying to ferry that damn cube with me.

 

[Aeshi]

No.It's just a stupid meme like everything else in that "game"

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Due to the misunderstanding that is the question, I will not answer in the poll.

I did not feel sorry for the companion cube: it's an inanimate object, and feels no pain. Rather, I was just sad. I had grown connected to my companion cube, and I didn't want to burn the thing. I wasn't sad for it, I was sad for myself.

I feel betrayed! Your answer would be no then, as you did not feel sorry for it.

 

[Always_Remain]

I can't say I felt bad but I was like wtf? Why do I have to throw it in a furnace? Maybe I want to use it some more.

 

[JokerCrowe]

I just found it amusing. Especially GLaDOS's speeches about the Companion Cube.
"The Cube will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak"
Hurr hurr hurr... : D Funny.

 

[SimuLord]

No.It's just a stupid meme like everything else in that "game"

Don't blame Erik Wolpaw (the game's head writer) for the memetic mutation! Wolpaw violated his own First Law of Game Design (the "time to crate law") intentionally...and that should've been the first clue that an extremely genre-savvy fellow was at the helm of that game's design.

 

[MGlBlaze]

No, I found the whole thing silly.

Likewise; I think the whole thing was just for more material for the dark and funny comments from GLaDOS. Granted it worked in that regard, but feeling bad actually having to destroy it? Nope.

"The Companion Cube was invited but he couldn't come because you murdered him. None of your other friends could come because you don't have any other friends." (Paraphrased a bit, probably, but yeah.)

 

[Shockolate]

Negative. I feel nothing. Beep-boop.

In all seriousness, No. It was exactly like all the other cubes I had to carry around with my built in gravity gun. Except it had hearts on it.

 

[omega 616]

The only reason I can see anybody getting upset with it, is if they couldn't afford toys as a kid and had no friends, so they got a box and drew a heart on it and that was there friend, they cared for it and loved it oh so much. One day a bully burned the box, which made the kid cry, 20 years later the kid played portal and it brings back some painful memories.

On topic. Maybe if you had to drag it round from the get go it would be a loss, alas I am unaffected.

 

[Thaius]

Due to the misunderstanding that is the question, I will not answer in the poll.

I did not feel sorry for the companion cube: it's an inanimate object, and feels no pain. Rather, I was just sad. I had grown connected to my companion cube, and I didn't want to burn the thing. I wasn't sad for it, I was sad for myself.

I feel betrayed! Your answer would be no then, as you did not feel sorry for it.

True, my answer would technically be no. But in the context of the expanded question, that would also imply that I didn't care. I cared: I loved my companion cube. I just didn't feel sorry for it.