Although two panelists-- Al Lowe, Leisure Suit Larry creator and Erik Wolpaw, better known as Old Man Murray and a writer on Psychonauts were no-shows, attendees at the Game Writers Conference were treated to a few laughs by Wideload Games' Matt Soell and Tom Abernathy of Pandemic, makers of Destroy All Humans!

Making gamers laugh is a serious business, made more serious by the fact that comedy is not as well established a subgenre of games as it is of film. Still, said Soell, comedy has its place:

Mainstream games might include too many serious-themed games, Soell suggested, probably owing to the first-person shooter genre where the hero character is a grim, gun-toting killer. But even Doom had the "BFG," Abernathy said, which was funny if you knew what the initials stood for, and the brooding Max Payne had joke moments. Comedy can be the glue to hold stories together, or as Soell put it, provide moments of levity so the player doesn't become exhausted.

Gamasutra has a short article summing up some of the pair's observations at the panel.