Broadening Saints Row's humour to expand its audience

From GI.biz: "At first, Saints Row may have seemed like a Grand Theft Auto wannabe, hoping to tap into the huge success Rockstar had seen with the PS2 era trilogy. But as GTA 4 veered into grittier, more realistic territory, it became clear that Saints Row was heading in a very different direction.

By the end of the series, Saints Row fans had been given superpowers, massacred enemies to the epic sound of Bonnie Tyler's 'Holding out for a Hero,' thrown themselves in front of vehicles to claim on the insurance money, sprayed sewage over unsuspecting pedestrians, and wielded weaponry ranging from the dubstep gun to a fart in a jar – and, yes, those purple phallic melee weapons.

The rebooted Saints Row, which arrives on PC and consoles tomorrow, has a considerably different tone."

[jznrpg]

Some guys here are really mad they don’t get to slap their friends with big purple dildos . Not sure why but they are upset ?. They says it woke not to slap each other with purple dongs . Not sure where the woke part comes from . maybe they are just trying to be a little more mature though I haven’t played it so hard to say but it seems that way they are the bing it down because they can’t go whackier than before.
It seems to me that they are trying to reach a larger audience although that isn’t always a good thing I get why they are trying , $$ . Bethesda did the same thing dumbing down their systems and adding a sprint button for the more casual gamer . Either way I never cared for Saints Row or GTA so it doesn’t bother me which direction they go .

[Rynxie]

No one wants to play as a pink hair liberal, a soylatte drinking feminist boy, a Hispanic guy who wears a cat helmet with no shirt on.

Oh, and the game is bland, unfunny, unoriginal and just flat out crap.

[lucian229]

it is literally that. JZNrpg is just clueless as he says he never cared about the games anyway.

regardless of what netflix, mainstream media and SJW pushes on everyone now a day, most people don't like that Woke crap, especially in their games, school or shows

[moriarty1889]

100% CORRECTmy friend. All this woke garbage and the people who constantly push it need to back off already. Most people don’t like or want this crap in videogames.

[brewin]

Jesus, that's such a sad pitiful take. The game is Saints Row still. It's pretty wild still. You make whatever character you want. I'm this big buff goofy dude that looks straight out of any other Saints game. Rocking the purple cap, Purple hoodie, boot cut jeans and shades.

Yes choice is bad. No one should get to make the character they choose. In SR 3 you could create a crossdressing buff dude with a woman's voice. How has it changed?

Last night I was playing the game and I violently started stabbing people in the streets just to see if I could. Shanking then 3x in the side then killing them with a stab to the head. That's a move in the game. When the cops rolled up, I jumped into someone's car, booted them out, and drove off while KRS ONEs "Sound of Da Police" was blaring out the car. I ran over dozens of pedestrians during the chase. This game is pretty far from "woke" and it's just as wild and outlandish as the other SR games from what I've seen. No dildos yet, but make no mistake, THIS IS STILL SAINTS ROW!

[dumahim]

They built their popularity on setting themselves apart from the rest with their wackiness. They don't need to top it. Giving up what makes it stand out is just a recipe for disaster.

[brewin]

You clearly haven't played it. Make the craziest character you want. It's still Saints Row and it's actually pretty great so far.

[crazyCoconuts]

There's a lot more to edginess than that one example. It's baked into the dialog, the story, the radio stations. GTA has always been edgy... pushing the boundaries of what if considered acceptable, sometimes broaching topics that are typically politely ignored. If GTA decided to not be edgy in order to appeal to a broader audience (as this interview stated Volition was doing), I'm confident it wouldn't have been nearly as successful. Some of us like edgy.

[staticall]

This was never about purple dildos though, it was about not being afraid to try something different and crazy (hence being a band leader and "evicting" homeless from your turf, becoming a movie star, a president, having an alien invasion, even living in the matrix); to be serious in one scene (trying to save Carlos, for instance) and have him available as a zombie hireling in the next one. Something that GTA can't do, for example; even with Trevor, they always strive for realism, something that Saints Row didn't care about. That was their niche. They already have tried to broaden their audience with Agents of Mayhem and failed.

P. S.: If that didn't bother you, why did you bother writing the comment? I don't get it.

[senorfartcushion]

My issue with this is -

no you shouldn’t offend people on purpose. That only please lonely, angry people who take their own issues out on others.It’s not 2007 anymore. Things have moved on. People are “at least” trying to become nicer to each other, which is a good thing.

- That doesn’t mean take EVERY JOKE OUT. It is completely lacking in humour. My reasoning for this is two-fold:

1: They’ve depleted the humour in trying not to be “cancelled.” - despite cancel culture not being a real thing.

And

2: They’re going to the number one source of jokeless ‘quips’ Marvel movies.

The script reads as though the creators of this game turned to Marvel’s quips as a substitute for their own jokes.

This is what “wokeness” is.

It’s the modern day capitalist’s mindset: “pretend to be nice so the younger ones will pay for our wares.” “Make quips, like the comic book movies do.” “Don’t go too far.”

The truth is that these companies LOVE casually racist/sexist/gendered humour. They want it back and they’re annoyed that they have to make it nicer. This is how you get games like Saints Row 2022. They don’t want to change the humour but have to force themselves, and the only way they can do this is to turn to stuff that doesn’t gel, like inoffensive, Marvel films.

[H9]

👏👏👏

[crazyCoconuts]

I think companies just want to make money. In this interview they're saying they want to appeal to a broader audience by not "punching down". GTA, South Park, etc. appealed to a pretty large audience by punching kinda every direction. A large part of humor often involves addressing things we're uncomfortable with. If you can't address race, sex, politics, religion, etc. you're left with a much smaller surface area for comedy... Like Seinfeld and dad jokes..

[senorfartcushion]

What I’ve seen from the best writers is that they appeal to cartoonishness, charm and operating ALONG the line.

I read a book called Road to Juneau and found that to be very funny in that, no, it didn’t aim to offend folks, but it did make a joke out of the way people behave. Oftentimes this was by switching around perspectives and messing with people’s expectations. I can’t get it out of my mind because it was the last “thing” I truly belly-laughed while ingesting.

Something like the original Loony Tunes cartoons are far funnier than things containing “quips.” Both are inoffensive, but one relies on humour rather than wit.

The book had things like: pulling up to a college campus and the parents leaning out the car, but it’s the father of the student who screeches proudly at his daughter. - this stuff made me laugh simply because I wasn’t expecting the dad to scream, and people screaming in the street is funny regardless of gender. It’s not funny because it’s the father; it’s funny because they’ve screamed so loudly without giving a s@“&. 😅
It’s charming because of how much the dad cares.

As far as towing the line of offender goes, there’s a character from foreign country who grew up with nothing but who talks to their kids via throwing things there way. It sounds offensive, but it’s not. The woman cannot speak English because of how bad the immigration/education systems of the US are, so she has had to find another way to communicate with her American kids. It has nothing on where she is from, but rather THAT she is from somewhere else and nobody helped.

- That’s towing the line.

It doesn’t have to be offensive but how far can a person’s wit go? Oftentimes it is commenting on horrible issues that will help tow the line between offensive and non-offensive.

[bloop]

That sounds like the worst book ever.

[Rynxie]

People are being nicer to each other? Crime is rampant. Most of the hate/agression comes from liberals and leftist loonies.

[senorfartcushion]

Err…yeah. In terms of the characters written, people are trying to be nicer to each other - whether that’s for the sake of it or for profit, it’s a case-by-case basis,

Most western countries experience the more rampant of those issues have conservative governments.

I’m the only leftist here, probably, and I think you’re swell. I’ve not called anyone names like “loonie” and you’re defending your right to be a conservative. I don’t want to be mean to people and call them loonies for no reason, and I’m annoyed at what conservative governments are running our countries into crime and poverty skyrocketing. I know the issue and, because I’m a leftist, I’ll call the greedy a$$hole conservatives “a$$holes for choosing profit over human lives. They are the people lll be mean to, because they deserve it for being the cause of our problems.

[Rynxie]

Bro, who's attacking the police? Who's trying to burn down police stations, government buildings, and churches? Who's attacking others because of their political views? Who are the ones rioting, and looting?

Wants facts? Leftist.

[senorfartcushion]

I don’t know, who is attacking police and trying to burn places down?
Americans probably.

America doesn’t even have a left. 😂 Everyone over there is insane. You have centerists on one side, with the democrats. They hate whatever small crop of pretend leftists you claim to have a lot MORE than the rightwing silver spoon, rich kid idiots who take control every 8 years.

Mass shootings - off the charts

Overly-religious

The states education system is a broken
joke, designed to keep the country dumber

Healthcare - non-existent. Designed to bankrupt people.

No tax laws worth mentioning, along with one of the most corrupt governments on the planet; wherein around 75% of American senators are already millionaires.

America is begging for leftists.

It seems you thought I was talking about conservatives like I was simply talking about conservative republicans. No. Most American politicians are conservatives, including the ones encouraging people to burn policemen - or whatever you said…

[brewin]

This is the truth. I use my time in SR to murder every lefty looking character. Just run em down. No consequences.

[brewin]

It's not really woke if you can run around murdering people at will for no reason. Some of the finishers are so gleefully violent that I was actually shocked. Still Saints.

[senorfartcushion]

The issue with “wokeness” is that you have to ignore the person’s actions. To most cretins on the internet, woke means “inclusive.”

There are people who see it as merely a marketing tool and the actions of the characters, as well as those informing said characters, are less than what they’re promising.

That’s really my point.

Saints Row seems to revel in freedom of carrying a weapon, which is not so woke. But the game is showcasing the guns being held and fired by a diverse, yet non-threatening CW cast of characters, so the cretins will see it, still as woke as they initially implied.

Wokeness is basically political centrism at this rate, so the game fits my definition of what woke seems to be. Nothing but shallow trinkets of info designed to help sell the product.

The comments on here are hilarious. I’ve seen people calling the dev team socialists 😂

[Demetrius]

No wonder they’re out of touch with fans and only boasted about customization then that lame last minute story trailer 😂😂😂
28514; they ruined the saints row series at first with making dlc a part 4 now they definitely buried themselves with this one smh assholes

[ChasterMies]

“Are we out of touch?
No, it’s the audience who are wrong.”

[EternalTitan]

Right.
You can keep your game.
And whatever audience can enjoy it.

[sourOG]

Lmao they spread it so thin it appeals to no one. They broadened it to include the lames who have zero sense of humor.

I played a little bit yesterday and I think it’s hilarious personally. Ironically hilarious. I’m not laughing with it, I’m laughing at it.

“There is nothing better than mimosas with friends” the student debt line Lmao. 😂 I wonder what they went to school for, something useless like gender studies.

“Can we boost the hybrid cars to do our robbery? Our carbon footprint ALWAYS matters”

It’s so lame and void of any humor that it’s hilarious. It’s more like a public service announcement for new wave political dorks. Volition is finished lmao.