For me If it's done right I can find it to be funny. Like in mgs when Phycho Mantis is aware of the player. It would be cool if more games starts doing it, just for shits and giggles.

Depends on the game and when they do it. I find it funny more often then not though.

In most cases, I feel like its a little cheap, but yeah depends on the tone of the game. Proper execution is difficult I guess

It's the same joke every time. I always hate it.

I see it as extremely lazy humor; and if it's in an indie game I usually immediately write the developer off as having terrible humor. Almost synonymous with "programmer humor" to me. It's very "internet" or "meme"-like in its appeal, I think, which is why it grates on me so much.

Most of the time it's pretty cringe worthy but sometimes it works, depends on the game and the writing. No More Heroes had some good fourth wall breaking moments. But I hate, hate, hate, HATE it when a character in a game says stuff like "Man, this is almost like in one of them VIDEOGAMES". Urgh...

If it's lazy shit like the stuff in the "Killer is Dead" Quick Look then fuck that. The example you cited of Psycho Mantis in MGS is possibly one of my favourite video game moments though.

It's hit or miss. I would love to play a game without any fourth walls whatsoever, though.

Same as film, it really depends on how it's used. Being meta can be fun but it has it's limits. Like in "Once upon a time"; the first episode this season Neil references to Mulan that there was a movie made about her.

That was a bit much to me.

But again its dependent on how it's handled. I've seen it done in really fun and clever ways before.

It's super hit or miss, and by that I mean it's almost always guaranteed a miss. I really liked the Psycho Mantis sequences, but it's way too easy a concept to fuck up. It needs to be something interesting and creative, not just, "hey guys, video games, am I right?"

Like others said, it's hit and miss, but I think it's also contextual. Something like Disgaea that's crazy and over the top and knows that it's cray and over the top can get away with it (most of the time), but it's not really trying to pretend to be a serious world. But I've seen plenty of 4th wall breaking in games that otherwise try to take its world seriously in one way or another and that's often where I find it falls flat.

The Psycho Mantis part is pretty cheesy and I don't know if I'd necessarily consider it a great example, but it also has some novelty to how it was presented that lets them get away with it.

It can work if done well. Tropes are not bad and all that.

VERY rarely is it done well. Yeah it can be done, but usually it comes off lame and annoying.

I get pissed! I keep paying out the ears to have them come in and fix my damn walls and every couple months some dick head game comes along and breaks it again. I'm getting real damn tired of it.

Moderation and when the scene doesn't call for it, Like the head shake Snake gives in MGS. I'd rather they'd be blunt with it though than just allude to the real world. Like that bit in DMC with the hair, eye rolling for the worst reason.

You are the type of person I do not understand. How can you be so cynical and jaded? If it's funny, it's funny. If it's not, it's not. But it sounds like whenever 4th wall stuff happens you shit your pants and hate everything related to it.

When it's understated it's pretty good.

In Nier there was a quest to repair a broken sword, but in NG+ since you already have the sword MC gets really confused and the floating book just tells him to roll with it, cause these things happen.

I like it a lot when it's done right, but hate it when it's done badly, which is most of the time. When Kojima did it in Metal Gear Solid 1, it was cool and funny. In MGS2, he just went totally overboard with it. Many developers seem to think that's the way to do it, which is a shame. Nowadays it's mostly dumb shit like the main character in Blood Dragon screaming about how he hates tutorials. Stuff like that can really bring a game down for me.

I almost always hate it. Probably the worst parts of the MGS series to me are all the fourth wall breaking scenes. It's like the whole series is so overly serious and then they do something like that and it just ruins the mood for me.

@crazybagman: I would love for someone to explain to me what's wrong with being "jaded." It makes the stuff you *do* like that much better, and that much better when you find people who agree with you. This world some people live in where everything is hilarious just strikes me as depressing. It's good to have some hate to make the good even better. I should say, though, when I say "write them off," I don't mean *completely.* They can still redeem themselves, but -- as with any bad joke -- they've hurt their comedic integrity.

It's very rarely done well. Not impossible to do well, but very hard. How annoying it is depends on the game. It's less jarring when done by a game like, say, Disgaea, as opposed to something that takes itself more seriously.

It was funny in the first Disgaea game. It's beginning to drag in the latest installments.