Unconventional is depressing?

[Michaël Samyn]

Many people find our games morose or bleak. I have never agreed with that. For me they are rich with emotions of all kinds and overall quite uplifting. I'm beginning to think that people respond in this way because our games are unconventional. They expect something, don't find it and get depressed. Some like experiencing this feeling. Others don't.

But it's a bit like xenophobia, isn't it? The unknown instills fear. This is why it's so easy to make a horror game. In horror, everything is supposed to be wrong. Because that's fun. Even bad controls can contribute to the experience of horror.

[Bruno de Figueiredo]

I wouldn't say uplifting myself. Rewarding, passionate and stimulating, certainly, but never gleeful or entirely optimistic. I do agree, however, that unconventionality is a sizable origin for this precise reaction, insomuch as a person is entitled to feel uneasy when in the presence of a stranger; or when venturing into unknown territories.

I find it very difficult to play Bientôt l'été or The Graveyard, I must confess, since it makes me face a number of sentiments I am unprepared to handle most of the time. It perturbs me, at times. But I'm one who believes that this technology was tailored for such purposes.

Others do not, and surely they have their reasons.

For instance, I don't intend on watching Haneke's "Amour" ever again. It's painfully intense - painfully beautiful in fact. It's bleak and morose in its own way. It is not written in stone that art, even that which sets out to celebrate beauty, is under any express obligation of being uplifting. Edifying, perhaps, though-provoking. But not cheering, despite its known and proven efficiency at that.

But no, I don't see unconventional as necessarily depressing. Your singular brand of unconventionality, however, often drives me towards that sentiment.

[György Dudas]

But it's a bit like xenophobia, isn't it? The unknown instills fear

boy, you say so  It took me more than 10 years to watch L'annee derriere a Marienbad... and
it is now my favourite film of all time. New ideas take time. And each generation
needs time to get used to new ideas... it takes time. Slow but steady work will do the trick