The Fourth Wall

[chris the cynic]

When the fuck did the meaning of this term change?

Having the world take place in an artificial construct does not break the fourth wall. Saying that it is an internet forum does not break the fourth wall. Are there things that break the fourth wall? Yes (see Narc.) But you can't find them in the trailer. The fourth wall is not broken when you admit the world isn't real. The fourth wall is broken when you admit that the work of fiction is a work of fiction.

I've seen too many people watching the trailer and misusing the term forth wall. I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore.

To put it another way.
I watched .hack//sign. I liked .hack//sign. I bought .hack//sign. It is the only anime I can say that about. Not one episode of .hack//sign passed without them reminding you that just about everything that you saw was being done by users on computers and thus (with a few rare exceptions) none of it was real. They never broke the fourth wall.

-

I do actually have something to do here other than ranting. I was wondering, where have you seen the fourth wall broken in TNM?

Narc breaks it in the last level. Narc breaks it if you visit Despot out of sequence, invisible sandwich and Narc break it when you find invisible sandwich.

I suppose you could say jimmy broke it when he said everything in the game revolved around him, but truth be told I'd be unsurprised if he said it in person. The Slicer encounter in DXI sort of bounces off of the fourth wall, but it reacts similarly to the third wall (with Slicer thinking you are the boss) so I'd say it doesn't break it. The Gelo conversation looks directly into the fourth wall and at the same time demonstrates the characters can't see through it, thus leaving the fourth wall unbroken while managing to acknowledge the possibility that it could be broken which is a neat trick.

[Dead-eye]

The fourth wall is just the wall that faces the audience on a stage so I think it's a farly vague term. When I said the game brakes the fourth wall I was only talking about the parts with Narc in it.

[chris the cynic]

I wasn't referring to you. It seems like every time I venture out beyond the safe lands of OTP and PDX I see people responding to the trailer and description by saying things like, "The fact this is so fourth wall breaking completely removes any allure it might have had." But nothing they have seen could have led them to this conclusion because, while the wall does get broken (though said breaking could be avoided I'm pretty sure) nothing they have seen could possibly indicate that to them.

The person who said that particular quote was actually convinced to give it a try by someone saying:
This is so far beyond the fourth wall, I think it finds a fifth. It’s a gritty cyberpunk story about a world built by people who write gritty cyberpunk stories based on a gritty cyberpunk story.
It’s also good. I thought it’d be terrible as well, but it’s really, really not. Just leave your preconceptions at the door, bring as sense of humor and you’ll be fine.

But many others were not so fortunate, they have given up without so much as two seconds of play because it supposedly is excessively fourth wall brakey.

[Dead-eye]

Oh I see and I'm in total agreement with you. The fourth wall is actually something hard to brake and games that do it right like TNM get credit for doing it.

Although it seems to me that they believe it brakes the fourth wall because of the games vary original setting. "OMG it's braking the fourth wall because it's based off of a real forum on the inter web..." why that would be considered braking the fourth wall I could only find a poor connection and why these people would not find that to be the coolest idea since pancakes is crazy.

[Jonas]

It's because these people prefer games about space marines shooting aliens on hostile planets.

[Dead-eye]

It's because these people prefer games about space marines shooting aliens on hostile planets.

That reminds me of something: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... sychonauts it's in at about 2 min : 30 sec.

[TheXGhost]

It's because these people prefer games about space marines shooting aliens on hostile planets.

hey hey woah, I know you're probably talking about halo, but that could also be starcraft too. Yeah anyway, I always hated people who judge a game entirely by graphics, thats just retarted.

[Jonas]

I had fun with Halo 3, though it's nowhere near my favourite game. I wasn't referring to any game in particular, but you gotta admit even StarCraft (fantastic game though it may be) does not have the most original setting in the world. It's basically Warhammer 40,000 with some names changed and a slightly different art direction.

I'm just saying I can understand why so many games take place in desperately unoriginal settings. A lot of people have a really hard time relating to quirky concepts.

[Dead-eye]

^^ What! Star Craft had a vary origanal setting... for my 12 year old mind at the time.

[Kee715]

StarCrap, 'nuff said.

C&C is better, but this forum is for DX, not C&C and StarCrap.

It's because these people prefer games about space marines shooting aliens on hostile planets.

DOOM was fun, as was DOOM II, and Quake...

Older games pawn!

And for some reason I like using DOS Box, typing to do everything is surprisingly fun to me, maybe it is protonostalgia... (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... onostalgia)

[r00tb33r]

And for some reason I like using DOS Box, typing to do everything is surprisingly fun to me, maybe it is protonostalgia... (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... onostalgia)

You might find some fun operating system alternatives to do just that, that play Deus Ex and run DOSBox.

[Kee715]

Well I had too much time on my hands...

DOSBox/M$-DOS Parody:


Worth a laugh or two, anyone else like it?

[Jetsetlemming]

The Narcissus Entity conversation after assassinating Scara ends with "You may hit your quickload key in 5... 4... 3...", I think that just might count. I mean, the entire conversation does. But that line specifically entertained me.
I, personally, quite enjoy and appreciate a good hammering at that fourth wall.

[TheXGhost]

StarCrap, 'nuff said.

C&C is better, but this forum is for DX, not C&C and StarCrap.

GASP!!!! *Dies of heart attack*

[Kee715]

What?

???