As strange as it is to say about a game that ends with space oddity, I think that this Alan Wake might have been a little too subtle for gamers. Reading the reviews, they all say things like "This game is just a Stephen King rip off" but that's kind of the point. Wake is a writer that has had his career made from one series, focused on one singular character, this character almost becoming interchangeable with Wake himself. In his interview when he announces that the book he had just written will conclude that series, the audience acts as if he has retired from writing. Wake feels trapped in the shadow of his past work and because of that is unable to write. The reason that this whole game reads as one big homage, is because that is all Wake knows. Even his best friend Barry constantly taunts him with his own cardboard cutout, holding up the image that Wake so desperately wants to get away from. There are many other themes of creative interference throughout the story. Almost all of the antagonists are people that want to control creatives. They take Wake's, and other creator's stories and try to use them for their own goals, be it fame, or ending the world. The problem with any game that attempts to have themes as "deep" as these is that gamers don't care. Ironically the "we want to treat games as art" crowd never truly does.