Trailers: Portal 2: Bot Trust
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While I'll agree that kids have always been and will always be exposed to dark material (Grimm Fairytails being the best and oldest example) and that being exposed to those things is not necessarily bad, Portal is not a Family game.Andy of Comix Inc said:
Here's a good example... Dr. Strangelove does not have anything in it that is inherently bad for children to see or hear, but it was written, conceived, filmed, and marketed to adults. It is not, by any FAR stretch of the imagination, a Family Movie.
Every book ever published by Roald Dahl is full of danger, violence, abuse and trauma. And the books were written for children. Though dark, they are "Family" books.
Portal was written for adult minds. An adult story coupled with a few off colour events and themes makes Portal and adult game. Just because a child CAN see something, doesn't mean it's meant for them.
And you say there are "kid friendly jokes," can you remember one?
Was it the one where you are confronted by a puzzle and told the penalty for failure is a painful death? Is it the part where you tear apart a mechanical mind piece by piece, removing personality traits like childlike curiosity until only mindless, furious aggression is left? Or was it the part where the A.I. reveals that it turned a highly populated laboratory into a giant gas chamber? I'm trying to think of "Family Friendly" jokes in this game, but I'm just drawing a blank.
Beyond Good and Evil is a dark family game. Portal is not.
After seeing this I'm looking forward to this game even more. The humour in this game looks like it is going to be awesome
Yeah, I'm with you on this one. Portal is wonderfully written and extremely funny, but it is not meant as family entertainment. To make it suitable for kids you'd have to expunge the meta-narrative that makes the game so good, and all you'd be left with is some reasonably fun puzzles with no reason to care about them.Harry Mason said:
Make a new meta-narrative about a competition for points, or a race, or something like that - then you've got some kid-friendly entertainment. But not with the story as it stands.
I would pay so much money to have ATLAS_ALPHA make me breakfast everyday.Andy of Comix Inc said:"Fire the guys who made those robots." But... but...!
UNILATERAL FORCE-INDUCED ISOKINETIC BREAKFAST TRIALS!! Also PANCAKES!!
...I wanna play a game with those robots!
Took the words right out of my mouth. I don't see how anyone could play Portal and say it was a family game.[/quote]Avatar Roku said:
Technically, the category is "Family/Puzzle." Portal is not a family game, but it is a puzzle game.
I glad Valve decided to do their own commercials as opposed to a company, they actually make it interesting and funny.
I think you are missing the point. It is not important who the game is marketed to or intended for, what matters for a family game is if it can be enjoyed by everyone.Harry Mason said:
Dr. Strangelove is therefore a bad example, since it has little slapstick or similar humour. If it did it would've been extremely family friendly. Darkness for adults and kids mean very different things, a kid will be absolutely not bothered by the films premise or even the ending.
All Portal has is a nice sounding evil robot who's parts you disassemble in the end.
Hmmm, I'm inclined to agree, though from what I've seen of Portal 2 it is aiming slightly down, the whole idea of the co-op mode is that younger audiences were already "backseat driving" through Portal, so might as well make co-op official. The single-player is another story, but I think Portal 2 is going to be more dry than black.Harry Mason said:
But yes, more I think about it, the more Portal wasn't "family" - but I think the formula of Portal (what they're using in the sequel, for example), sets a good blueprint for "family" entertainment, even if in execution, it's not.