How to become a bard.

[Ruisu]

Boy I remember when memes were funny.

Oh wait, no I don't.

[Nanaya]

Usually memes have a shelf life that quickly expires when the unwashed masses spam it ad nauseam, but "Arrow In the Knee" was always terrible.

I suppose my lukewarm enjoyment of Skyrim did not help matters, perhaps I just have bad taste and I've yet to come to terms with it.

[Jocko]

Usually memes have a shelf life that quickly expires when the unwashed masses spam it ad nauseam, but "Arrow In the Knee" was always terrible.

I suppose my lukewarm enjoyment of Skyrim did not help matters, perhaps I just have bad taste and I've yet to come to terms with it.

No, no, I would say that Skyrim was objectively quite terrible, much like XIV at launch

[KiriA500]

Usually memes have a shelf life that quickly expires when the unwashed masses spam it ad nauseam, but "Arrow In the Knee" was always terrible.

I suppose my lukewarm enjoyment of Skyrim did not help matters, perhaps I just have bad taste and I've yet to come to terms with it.

Skyrim didn't make the "arrow to the knee" joke (hell, it wasn't even a joke...it was just general guard dialogue) bad, the internet is to blame for that. Just like the "cake is a lie" joke from Portal (which also wasn't a joke in the game). Don't blame the game because people on the internet feel the need to repeat things nonstop.

No, no, I would say that Skyrim was objectively quite terrible, much like XIV at launch

[AdvancedWind]

Can we go back to STOP RIGHT THERE YOU CRIMINAL SCUM?

Superior "meme" from a superior game.

[AmyNeudaiz]

Please stop with the joke, it's over used.

[Colino]

Wow, aren't you guys a bunch of angry pricks.

Says the guy calling everyone an angry prick

The joke is funny, old or not.

No... No it really isn't.

If you don't think it is funny why you have to come shit on everybody else who is having a good laugh?

Because opening a new thread about it is completely stupid and the fact that OP assumed that somehow people weren't aware of this is ridicolous.

Also please watch this video as it is very relevant.

[Laraul]

I haven't played Skyrim, nor was I sure what this referred to. Fortunately I was able to look it up. Not to sure what people are complaining about. Why wouldn't you want this kind of cultural reference hinted at inside a game? It makes it more memorable.

[Duelle]

Wow, aren't you guys a bunch of angry pricks. The joke is funny, old or not. If you don't think it is funny why you have to come shit on everybody else who is having a good laugh?

Eh, people tend to forget that everyone has a different sense of humor. I generally laugh at black comedy and grin at Chuck Norris jokes, and despite my deep hatred of forced random comedy (Robot Chicken comes to mind...), I know to leave well enough alone. Others, however, don't. =/

[Almalexia]

I'm disappointed "patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter" didn't catch on like this knee bullshit did. At least that one was a joke from the start.

In general, I don't appreciate the use of pop references in my video games unless it's something with standing. There's a practical reason for this: making a contemporary reference is high risk. In this thread alone, the response has been "it's still funny " to "hackneyed, pandering garbage" with no middle ground.

When an author/localization team chooses to inject a meme, they must know in the back of their minds that the audience has been bombarded with the cliche enough times for them to "get it" when the line is delivered. In this way, it's in no way subtle, witty, profound or clever. Using pop humor--it's almost exclusively internet humor nowadays--is lazy. The author does zero work for humorous effect and neither does the audience, since the effect is pre-built into a meme that everybody is already heard. Sadly, the author inserts a meme because everyone has already heard it.

So when I say "with standing," what do I mean? Skyrim's knee business isn't even a year old. It's still making its rounds in every venue that will take it. It's too contemporary to appreciate, too recent to feel nostalgic about. Also, video games have a long way to go before, well, you know. "Culture."

Suppose another NPC in FFXIV quips about the Empire using a massive sphere from space to destroy planets. You'll definitely have to rub a few brain cells together to appreciate a pop culture reference like that, even if it is a simple one, but it's better than the Pavlovian response expected from internet humor.

The important thing is that the source material has standing in the popular consciousness so when the reference is made half the audience isn't put off by it. Whether you like or hate the source material itself is independent of its cultural relevance--you'll still be able to appreciate it, and with that the author accomplishes his mission.