 Lanning has always believed that society is "under the umbrella of massively deceptive campaigns to keep people ignorant, in fear, and unknowingly supportive of truly evil policies," and the dark humor possible in video games was his way of illustrating that truth.Particularly, setting his games on the fictional Oddworld allows him to get away with more than he would if the games were set on Earth.And using a metaphor in that way is how he disguises the message he is trying to send, because his partner Sherry McKenna explains that "nobody wants to be preached to... you get up on a platform and tell people how the world should be, and they'll walk away... but if you can grab their attention with irony and humour, then you've grabbed them."