Lately we seem to have been invaded by a host of La La Land-esque surreal 'games'. The majority of GM users seem to be unreceptive to this kind of thing, which I find quite interesting, because not only are these games being labeled as 'La La Land clones', but their true purpose is being largely ignored. Far too many people play these things as mere games, when in fact they are a different art form entirely.

Yes, they are an art form. I realize I might be a bit biased here (having made one of my own a while back), but I think it's hard to deny that they at least have some artistic qualities to them. In fact, they're sort of like interactive modern art in their tone and general feeling of surreality.

Speaking of surreality, it might be best to define it, because not everyone seems to recognize it for what it is unless it's slapping them in the face (as in these surreal fable-type games). My definition: surreallity is what you get when you mix together things which are unconnected in real life. For instance, a picture with the colors inverted is a very blatant form of surreality; what should be green is orange, etc. However, there are more subtle forms, and I think every good game (with the exception, perhaps, of games which are meant to be as close to reality as possible) has them in some measure or other. More subtle surreality usually takes the form of strange shape and color combinations, something I've been experimenting alot with lately, or perhaps attributing qualities that are not normally possessed by an object to that object. I know I've stated this poorly, so I'll give an example; a flower that glows like a firefly is a surreal image.

Also, surreality can be achieved through sound. About half-way through Johnny's Oddessy, for instance, that infamous 'creepy hygiene song' begins to play. Under normal circumstances, this song could be considered dumb or whatever, but when placed in the completely bizzare context that it's in in Johnny's Oddessy, it takes on an unexplainably sinister quality.

The 'surreal fable', as people have started calling it, is (when properly done) a combination of the most disjointed and out-of-context images and sounds (the 'surreal' part) with an often opaque philosophical message. As far as I know, it's only recently that games like this have started to catch on, and in my opinion it's great.

In a nutshell, I think that biggt, like Picasso, has actually created a new and original art form, the interactive surreal fable (quite the name, eh?), whose purpose is to demonstrate a philosophical point through player interaction. I think it's a great innovation; it forces the player to see the author's point from the author's own perspective, plus it allows us to get points across that are difficult to put into words. Of course, it's practically a guarantee that there'll be people who don't like it or just plain don't get it, but I don't think we should squelch its progression. I think it's great that biggt has created an art form so unique that after only six months or so everyone in the GM world (and some from outside it as well) has an opinion on it, whether good or bad, and already others are following in his footsteps. I think we should let him have his imitators, and at the very least not openly discourage the progression of this particular form of art; there are people out there who enjoy it.