Fools, Tricksters and Jokers: Categorization of Humor in Gameplay.

Humor in videogames is quite complex and rich. It pervades a range of games and can adopt many forms, from slapstick to parody to dark humor. This paper reviews and categorizes humor in the videogame space, suggesting that humor can be described through game-to-player, player-to-player, and player-to-game trajectories. Scripted humor (game-to-player) is contrasted with spontaneous humor (player-to-player) and emergent humor (player-to-game). The paper concludes by exploring how computational humor could sustain the design of humor in videogames.