I was going to make a joke about how Sonic.exe and Jeff the Killer (Would comment on Rake and Tails doll but not familiar with them) were never good, but then I noticed so bad it's funny.
I personally enjoy The Rake. It's less used than the other entities, and the source story is very well written.
I think it is safe to say that it created the worst of the Haunted Gaming tropes.
I concur. Sonic.exe is terrible.
Hyper realistic blood stands out, for example.
Hyper-realistic blood is actually a non-thing, by the way. It's used in photography when making tiny things seem vibrant and huge. The word these authors should use is
photo-realistic. Just making a point.
Sure, there are some good Haunted Gaming stories, but I think it's like Creepypastas as a whole. The market is over-saturated with crap.
I disagree. As someone who has been part of the community, it's mainly the vocal minority that shadows over the gems.
But Jvk1166z.esp, for example, is a pretty good one. What I like about it is that.... While it shoves it's head way too far up it's own asshole with the sky/time math, it has some subtlety.
Subtlety is key.
No hyperrealistic blood. No possessed video game. No old maniac selling you the game while cackling or a mysterious, horrified letter from a friend. No demon who kills people IRL.
Those are overused, yes, but they used to not be. In fact, when they were first introduced, it was seen as a neat concept, to be simply thrown into a terrifying situation distant from reality.
Honestly, the Assassin has a jump-scare element to it, but it's a jump scare for the character, translated after the fact through an email correspondence, and it's suggested that it's as much a tool to keep the player going, an proverbial alarm clock for people willing to deal with the convoluted sleep deprivation shit. Not a supernatural demon.
An excellent, astute observation.
Unlike Sonic.exe, with its "Then I died and your next." and all of JCs ridiculous bullshit.
I hate JC. I simply must say it again.
I mean, the ending is a bit of a "And your next" (Though it's more "And I'm next") but it ends on the author wanting to find this hard to find mod that his now silent penpal was obsessed with out of curiosity. The silence isn't followed up with a news paper report with the guy being reported dead in a murder suicide with demonic messages carved into his skin or anything. His silence is unexplained, and that makes it all the stronger as a literary device.
Silence is golden.
Are any of our more Pasta-savy members familiar with Jvk1166z.esp? What is the popular opinion on it? Good? Bad?
We personally believe it to be a good example of a gamepasta. That being said, we think that you would really have to have a good grasp of Elder Scrolls mechanics to understand it, which is a hindrance.
TL;DR - Opinion on Haunted Gaming especially, but Pastas as a whole - More people need to learn that it's what you don't see that scares you the most.
One of my favorite quotes is from H.P. Lovecraft. It goes something like:
The oldest emotion of man is fear, and the deepest rooted fear is that of the unknown.
