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Extra Credits: Propaganda Games & Why Games Do Cthulhu Wrong
40hz:
I'm a big Lovecraft fan - but I'll +1 w/Stoic and tomos. These are games we're talking about. They don't really need to toe the line on Lovecraftian themes or nihilism to be good games.
However, if you're truly a Lovecraft fan, the only possible game involving Cthulhu would be preventing his minions or some misguided researchers from setting in motion a chain of events that will bring on the advent of what the Necronomicon calls the Strange Aeons where the Old Ones shall return to once again dominate and rule our dimension - "and even death may die."*
In short, you can't fight Cthulhu. Cthulhu is the failure state. If Cthulhu appears, the game is over.
The best possible win would be to simply survive - ideally with your sanity intact - till the game clock runs out. With Cthulhu, there is NO possible win - there's only stalling off your own inevitable failure. Your goal isn't to win the game. It's to not lose it. And that would not be the most satisfying outcome for the average gamer.
FWIW I've played some very good Lovecraft-themed games with heavy duty HP fans over the years. While these games were often extremely intense and very enjoyable to play, the "don't lose" end goal tended to leave all of us with a certain sense of frustration and futility by the end of the game. With Lovecraft, there's no real "feel good" ending possible. So unless you're a diehard fan like we are, that probably wouldn't have been considered a 'fun' evening for most people. Not that that's a bad thing for Lovecraft fans. That act of putting up a bold but ultimately pointless front in the face of utter hopelessness and cosmic dread is what makes Lovecraft so entertaining. At least for those of us mutants who have been bitten by the Cthulhu bug.
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*Note: losing to Cthulhu is a particularly nasty fate since Cthulhu is (among other things) an "eater of souls." Your very being becomes trapped like a fly in amber. Those "killed" by Cthulhu don't "die" in the usual sense. Your consciousness gets absorbed into the mind/person of Cthulhu, where it will get to explore the ceaseless and infinite number of ways you can suffer death and pain in Cthulhu's psychotic imagination.
Like Leviathan's Labyrinth in Clive Barker's Hellraiser stories (which Barker has said were heavily influenced by some of Lovecraft's themes and ideas) Cthulhu is the living embodiment of what we would consider to be hell in the most classic and literal sense. "Enter Ye into the place prepared for you from everlasting unto everlasting. Now Ye shall truly never die."
Such is the fate of those consumed by the eater of souls.
Wow! Bummer huh? Talk about something that could ruin your whole day... ;D
superboyac:
I'm a big Lovecraft fan - but I'll +1 w/Stoic and tomos. These are games we're talking about. They don't really need to toe the line on Lovecraftian themes or nihilism to be good games.
However, if you're truly a Lovecraft fan, the only possible game involving Cthulhu would be preventing his minions or some misguided researchers from setting in motion a chain of events that will bring on the advent of what the Necronomicon calls the Strange Aeons where the Old Ones shall return to once again dominate and rule our dimension - "and even death may die."*
In short, you can't fight Cthulhu. Cthulhu is the failure state. If Cthulhu appears, the game is over.
The best possible win would be to simply survive - ideally with your sanity intact - till the game clock runs out. With Cthulhu, there is NO possible win - there's only stalling off your own inevitable failure. Your goal isn't to win the game. It's to not lose it. And that would not be the most satisfying outcome for the average gamer.
FWIW I've played some very good Lovecraft-themed games with heavy duty HP fans over the years. While these games were often extremely intense and very enjoyable to play, the "don't lose" end goal tended to leave all of us with a certain sense of frustration and futility by the end of the game. With Lovecraft, there's no real "feel good" ending possible. So unless you're a diehard fan like we are, that probably wouldn't have been considered a 'fun' evening for most people. Not that that's a bad thing for Lovecraft fans. That act of putting up a bold but ultimately pointless front in the face of utter hopelessness and cosmic dread is what makes Lovecraft so entertaining. At least for those of us mutants who have been bitten by the Cthulhu bug.
---------------------------------------------------
*Note: losing to Cthulhu is a particularly nasty fate since Cthulhu is (among other things) an "eater of souls." Your very being becomes trapped like a fly in amber. Those "killed" by Cthulhu don't "die" in the usual sense. Your consciousness gets absorbed into the mind/person of Cthulhu, where it will get to explore the ceaseless and infinite number of ways you can suffer death and pain in Cthulhu's psychotic imagination.
Like Leviathan's Labyrinth in Clive Barker's Hellraiser stories (which Barker has said were heavily influenced by some of Lovecraft's themes and ideas) Cthulhu is the living embodiment of what we would consider to be hell in the most classic and literal sense. "Enter Ye into the place prepared for you from everlasting unto everlasting. Now Ye shall truly never die."
Such is the fate of those consumed by the eater of souls.
Wow! Bummer huh? Talk about something that could ruin your whole day... ;D
(see attachment in previous post)
-40hz (July 22, 2014, 09:28 AM)
--- End quote ---
>:D :beerchug:
tomos:
In short, you can't fight Cthulhu. Cthulhu is the failure state. If Cthulhu appears, the game is over.
-40hz (July 22, 2014, 09:28 AM)
--- End quote ---
that's a killer then... I cant argue with that ;D
I guess my slant then is just that I dont subscribe to the idea of Cthulhu. I'm sure it does exist. I've been in bad shape at times in my life - but never like that, thankfully.
You could have fun in a game messing around with those ideas though :-\ but I suspect it would still upset the Cthulhu fans :P
40hz:
You could have fun in a game messing around with those ideas though :-\ but I suspect it would still upset the Cthulhu fans :P
-tomos (July 22, 2014, 03:59 PM)
--- End quote ---
Might as well upset them then - although the jokes and parodies fly fast and furious whenever Cthulhu fans gather, from my experience. About the only people that just sit there being offended or taking things seriously are some of those goth/artsy types you see hanging out in small groups in the corner - usually holding intense half-whispered conversations among themselves - while doing their best to look very knowing any time the Necronomicon gets mentioned... :-\
The real truth is that unless you do get creative and mess around with those ideas, virtually every Cthulhu Mythos story boils down to a sight variation of this classic animation:
There! Now you don't have to read the stories or try to find a good film adaptation any more. :Thmbsup: 8) :Thmbsup: ;D
superboyac:
:D
keep it up guys!
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