[split from] Re: horror or not?

[Twilight Dream]

I'm sorry for bringing up a thread this old, but I have just started playing MLwM, and when I found this thread I started thinking about this.

The major difference between many other horror games and MLwM is the apparent lack of "scary things" and a sanity system of sorts (as already mentioned above). However even when I read the game for the first time before playing it, it was quite apparent this game would be a game of psychological horror - a game of pain and agony and self-loathing, and most importantly, a game of fear. After the first two game sessions there was no doubt about it.

Therefore, the problem with it not being categorized as a horror game comes from the fact that on a quick glance it indeed doesn't belong to the category. But as soon as one starts to really read it it's quite obviously horror, albeit a completely different type of horror. An apt point of view to take would be the one that contrasts horror and terror, horror stemming from - as Ann Radcliffe, a writer of Gothic romance and horror described - the horrid things seen and experienced, stemming from the fact that "things are shown". Terror, on the other hand stems from - again, according to Radcliffe - the things in the mind, of all the things unseen but still there, stemming from the fact that you know bad things will happen, from knowing that there is a Beast, not in plain sight but hidden, waiting. In other words, horror is the horror of visible horrid things, and terror is the terror of things inside the mind, ie. psychological.

Therefore, by its' nature, I would categorize MLwM in the latter category; it is a game of terror that nestles in the minds of the Minions and the Master, and only rarely manifests itself to the extent it becomes horror.

Of course, as always when working with ambiguous terms, the meanings of 'horror' and 'terror' have been re-evaluated many times over and these evaluations have often been contradictory with the one Radcliffe presented, but still this difference aptly illustrates the main problems for an average player to recognize MLwM for what it is, as it operates so thoroughly with the horrors of the mind, within the mind - and that is also why in my books MLwM is one of the best horror games I have ever played.

Thank you Paul for this marvelous game!

[Paul Czege]

Hi,

Thank you Paul for this marvelous game!

You're welcome. Thanks for your interest in it.

I hope you don't mind, but I've split your post out as the start of this new thread. This way that thread represents what folks thought about the "horror or not?" question at the time, and here we have this thread for the "horror or not?" question now.

Thanks,

Paul

[Twilight Dream]

I hope you don't mind, but I've split your post out as the start of this new thread. This way that thread represents what folks thought about the "horror or not?" question at the time, and here we have this thread for the "horror or not?" question now.

Thanks,

Paul

Splitting the thread was a good thing - I was a tad nervous about replying to a thread that old, so now I don't have to worry about that I myself considered starting a new thread about this, but the rule of thumb "If there already is a thread about it, don't start a new one" enforced on some of the forums I frequently read made me too hesitant