While not watching the Superbowl this weekend, I was extremely surprised to suddenly find myself in the Great Depression! Specifically, I’m referring to these two commercials:
Both the Simpson’s Coke commercial and the Undercover Boss reality show promo involve rich people suffering the humiliation of losing their status. This “reversal of fortune” trope was extremely popular in the Great Depression, typified by films like Dance, Fools, Dance (1931), Faithless (1932), and My Man Godfrey (1936). There was a love/hate relationship with the idea of Rich People: The common man enjoyed seeing them suffer the blows the economy had already dealt him, while simultaneously sympathizing with them in a desire to not be poor.
The million-dolar question is what could this mean for video games? There was no video gaming in the 30s and 40s, so we have to use our imagination to find what this will mean for interactive entertainment. Could a “Reversal of Fortune” game be made? Riches to rags to riches (or acceptances of rags) might be a workable theme. Maybe there will be an appetite for Stock Trading sims, like Kojima’s Kabushiki Baibai Trainer Kabutore. It gives a “Brain Age” feel to learning about stocks!
Or maybe something with more edge to it, for the core audience, like Kabu Trader Shun? It’s a battle of capital!
Now that’s financial education!
Less helpful is the Great Depression’s desire for escapism, as exemplified by the introduction of screwball comedies. Escapism is already videogames’ bread and butter, comedy less so. Comedy is notoriously difficult with interactive entertainment (outside of adventure games’s text content). Fantastic musicals were also a huge success in the Great Depression, so perhaps game storytelling could be merged with song in a manner not unlike Rhythm Tengoku/Rhythm heaven? Imagine a whole story told through interactive music and gameplay. I could see it working! Think of Feel the Magic minus the creepiness and repetition. Or Space Channel 5 with meaningful choices.
I’m almost surprised nobody’s done that yet.
I know I’d be more likely to play Heavy Rain if it was a musical.
Hearthstone's Articles News 
Dammit, you stole my idea :p! (The musical thing I mean.) I’d love to hear more of your ideas on how that might work.
As for screwball comedy elements in games, I guess multiplayer LBP and NSMBW have a kind of slapstick comedy feeling to them, perhaps? Just a thought.
(I know you wrote this over 3 months ago, but I’ve only just discovered your blog. It’s quite entertaining.)
By: James Slater on May 4, 2010
at 10:33 am