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Games Can Make Us Cry
A study by Bowen Research is getting some commentary in the gaming press, with their analysis being that "More than two thirds of all video gamers feel that video games already surpass, or will soon at least equal movies, music and books in delivering an emotional impact." The Guardian Gamesblog has a look at the research. From the article: "Of course it could be argued that RPGs simply attract more emotionally unstable gamers, and that if these same players were forced to try Microsoft Flight Simulator, they'd cry like babies when their Cessna crashed into a pylon during a failed runway approach. Sadly, Bowen does not appear to explore this possibility."
Of course games can make us feel emotion.
Thief: Deadly Shadows had a level in a place named The Shalebridge Cradle [PDF] which was scarier than anything I've ever played. A haunted, burnt out asylum/orphanage with creepy sounds and grueling atmosphere. It was a level that I was glad to be finished.
Play it in the dark on a big screen and Dolby Digital sound. If there's a thunderstorm outside make sure you're wearing Depends.
Trolling is a art,
Point me a person who has played Fallout and did not have emotional impact at the end of the game. Its truly one of the better RPGs developed.
I've created a fair number of Neverwinter Nights modules and I was always surprised by the strong emotional reactions some players had. They'd report tears, joy, and fury.
The key is for developers to tap into those strong emotions, telling a story that involves the player, encouraging them to invest a portion of their emotions into the game.
Players will walk through a swamp for gold and fight an army for vengeance, but they'll walk to the ends of Hell for love.
Of course it could be argued that RPGs simply attract more emotionally unstable gamers, and that if these same players were forced to try Microsoft Flight Simulator, they'd cry like babies when their Cessna crashed into a pylon during a failed runway approach. Sadly, Bowen does not appear to explore this possibility.
Can we get some other article that doesn't have smartassery from a Madden jockey?
it really struck a nerve. I wept for days thinking of the loss the family must have experienced due to my actions.
Meh, games better than movies - maybe...if your talking about the latest summer blockbuster schlock. Books, no way.
Games give players the illusion that they are one of the characters, so most of them are going to become more emotionally attached to what goes on in the story (assuming there is one with any substance, of course).
Now if only more of them can be scripted by quality writers, and voiced by professional actors instead of the Capcom Troupe.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
I'll also admit, I've almost come to tears once or twice while playing a game where a primary character dies off unexpectedly or unfairly.
Yet, when it comes down to it, I can feel part of a well-written book over a game any day. The ability to completely use my imagination removes the last facest of alienation experienced when playing a game or watching a movie... Books definitely produce the largest emotional responses for me. Whereas some games are possibly better than movies, no game is as good as a well written book.
I wept after playing a few seconds of the first level of Medal of Honor: Frontline. It was such a moving simulation of what our forefathers went through in WWII.
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
It could be argued that RPG's attract more weepy gamers, but is there any evidence? Anything besides the authors preexisting biases to lead him such a conclusion?
/PS still pissed that Hobbes betrayed me.
Nope thought not.
That was definitely an excellent example! That level did the exact same thing to me as well. I actually dreaded going into that level because I knew that it would have that impact on me - and it certainly surpassed my expectations.
The ghostly applause in the "theatre"; the voices and screams in the area of the asylum cells; the knocking near the staircase that sounded a lot louder than it probably was as you got close to the top... That level just completely freaked me out to the point that when it was done, I felt a combination of "I am so glad to be out of there" and "Damn, those level designers are f**king good!"
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
Of course it could be argued that RPGs simply attract more emotionally unstable gamers, and that if these same players were forced to try Microsoft Flight Simulator, they'd cry like babies when their Cessna crashed into a pylon during a failed runway approach. Sadly, Bowen does not appear to explore this possibility.
Couldn't it just be that RPGs have the most involved stories and that the people who play them pay attention to the story? Of course those who play story-intensive games will have a more emotional reaction to gaming than the person who plays only sports games and other story-light titles. The aim of a game is to entertain, and some us are entertained by a good story along with our button mashing.
e2 | LJ
Crying, maybe? Pissing someone off is more likely. Crashing that Cessna might not make you cry but I would not be surprised at a DAMN, FWORD, or similar instead.
Of course you can get really carried away in your games like this guy did over an item called Cloudsong in DAOC. Warning, don't play in public if sensitive ears are about. Sad thing is I run across people who react like this in quite a few games, especially FPS.
http://content.ytmnd.com//100000/100051/sound.mp3
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
THe last couple Silent Hill games managed to make me jump and feel creeped out a few times. OK I didn't CRY, but still.
The sappy love story in Final Fantasy X though... umm, ahh, it was touching. That's all I'm saying.
I couldn't help but shed a tear when my pet dog Rover was killed on the first level of NetHack. He was a good and faithful dog. Stuck by my side through thick and thin. Of course, he did have a nasty habit of stepping on cursed items but what can you do? Damn you, falling rock traps. Damn you all! I... I... I can't talk about it anymore... It's still too soon.
While the emotionally unstable RPG player comment was amusing, the reality is that we react emotionally to stories. RPGs usually provide more story content (character development, background information about the world, complex interactions between the characters) than other games, so it makes sense that RPGs would be among the first games to elicit emotional responses.
A simulated aircraft crashing at the runway doesn't have the same emotional charge without story: it is just an event in a sterile world. If on the other hand prior to takeoff we had cut-scenes showing a pilot, spouse and children boarding the plane to make a trip that was important to them, then the same crash in the same game environment might have more emotional impact. The more "connected" the player was to their story, the bigger the impact.
Other types of games can deliver story, sometimes simply through the environment (a burned out village, an isolated shoreline surrounded by jagged cliffs, etc). In some ways this is more effective for more interactive games because interactive environments tend to pull the player out of the emotional impact when the player can interact in ways unsuited to the emotion of the scene. Half life, for example: the scientists you meet throughout was a ground breaking "in game engine" way to experience the progression of the story. Assuming you listened, didn't shoot things while they talked, etc. RPGs tend to avoid that problem by literally tearing the control out of the users hands, although some more recent games have made good progress at interactive storytelling methods that don't feel so abrubt.
Sig under construction since 1998.
Why this was needed to be added?
The Guardian Gamesblog has a look at the research. From the article: "Of course it could be argued that RPGs simply attract more emotionally unstable gamers, and that if these same players were forced to try Microsoft Flight Simulator, they'd cry like babies when their Cessna crashed into a pylon during a failed runway approach. Sadly, Bowen does not appear to explore this possibility."
The story was fine on its own merits, this is simply to incite a reaction.
RPG's attract unstable gamers, eh? How any site such as "The Guardian Gamesblog" can make such insane statements is beyond me, and then to get placed in the same post as a well researched factual article boggles the mind.
When was the last time a flight simulator had enough storyline to make anyone care or become attached to a character or a plane? Never. Save maybe the Wing Commander series. *gasp* maybe it is the fact that RPG's are story driven, and can be very immersive and draw the player in very close. I defy anyone who played FF VII to have not been emotional when Aeris dies. Maybe not box-of-kleenex tear gusher, but evoking some emotional response.
This was simply not needed and detracts heavily from the real "news," a well researched and well written article.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
I don't understand the difference. I guess I don't see why a game would by definition have less emotional effect than a movie.
That said, I wonder about the possibility that *some* gamers just plain have lower standards. In high school I knew people who with religious zeal studied the life-stories of Street Fighter characters (I practically was one of them,) and considered Mortal Kombat a top-notch movie. I agree with the blogger. You have to examine what that person considers "eliciting emotion", and why. If you did a poll of my generation of the best movie ever made, "The Highlander" would do really well.
For those of you who have played: consider what you were feeling the moment you realized just what the shadows were, and what you had to do to progress to the final battle. Have you ever played a game that could create such empathy for your "foes"?
For those of you who haven't played--you really should pick up a copy. It's an excellent game, and it's cheap.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
... I'd bet "Golden Sun" 1 & 2 are considered by many "the best RPG ever" (???) precisely because of how these game(s) make them feel. I, myself, think I'm among these people.
The game industry has all but abandoned the adventure genre where we were just beginning to grow up and see some good storytelling. Now we have crap! Gamers need to watch better movies, read better books, and learn to appreciate themes outside of their adolescent power and sex fantasies.
Every time I play a Myst game I walk around in silent amazement. The ages are just so darn beautiful. I'm not into eyecandy but Myst grips me every time I play it. The surroundings, the sounds, the horrible story of Atrus and his kin... Together they create e real life-like experience. I just started Myst V and damn is it beautiful. I think a Myst theme park would be fantastic!
-- Cheers!
Some games can make you cry based purely upon the emotional investment made *before* you play the game.
See: Daikatana. Dr3ver. Pac-Man (2600).
Check out this game if you get the chance. It should be out for PS2, Xbox and PC now. It does a good job of pulling you in with the story and I actually cared about what happened to the characters. It isn't the hardest game in the world and it's different than most games (think Shenmue style) but fun enough. I think it's getting an average review of about 8.5
http://www.atari.com/indigo/
My Xbox Live Gamer Card
...and I think he has a point, at least with certain games (read: "Final Fantasy"). You guys who are going into hysterics over an off-the-cuff facetious comment are just proving it.
Rob
#4 - The opening sequence to Alternate Reality (Atari 800 version only) by Gary Gilbertson and Phillip Price.
#3 - Deus Ex -- The death of Paul Denton. (The first time I played it through, he died. The second time I played it through, I saved him, and felt really good about myself until I found out that everyone else I knew saved him on the first try.)
#2 - RP-heavy text MUDs run by live GMs can pull at the heartstrings as no MMORPG has. (But, no doubt, they will get there.)
#1 - The death of Floyd in Planetfall:
I still get vaclempt after reading the last line. You gotta problem with that!?
We're indie. We're working on our 14th game.
At first I dismissed the premise out of hand, but reading some of the comments here has changed my mind, a bit.
Ico, sure, but it was made with a sense of art. Most of the games that really seem an emotional response are not the game industry's version of big budget blockbusters. (Which EXCLUDES Final Fantasy, almost in direct proportion to its mainstream popularity. I never cared much about the characters in VII -- what, we're supposed to like Cloud??)
Ico is the best example that comes to mind.
Grandias 1 and 2, although they are victim to some RPG cliches, manage to overcome it with amazingly witty incidental dialogue.
Don't forget: making the player laugh is also an emotional response, so I include the Paper Mario games, and some of the better moments in Mario & Luigi.
...during computer games comes from times when they were simply crap, and I realized that I had actually spent money on them. Take Masters of Orion 3, for example. How couldn't you cry over that waste of money?
Let's hope Valve gets a little Alyx and Freeman action going in one of the HL2 expansions ;)
I've had a lot of games pull some strong emotions out of me, everything ranging from close-to-tears to hair standing on end.
I remember getting freaked out playing Castle Wolfenstein. (Yes, the original.) I was on the fourth mission or so. Up to that point, the last level was open a few doors, go down a few hallways, there's the boss. Wipe him out. This one had me going after (if I recall correctly) a mechanized general. At every hall and door, I expect to see the boss. First door, nothing. Second, nothing, Thrid, nothing. Then I got to the point of nervous where-the-hell-is-he? thinking. Another hall, another corner. Still no boss. (Keep in mind it was also in the wee hours of the morning and I was very tired, making me more susceptible.) Another door, no boss, another door, no boss, another corner, no boss. I'm completely freaking out by this time wondering where the hell he is. I walk into a room that didn't seem to be a place for a boss, making me lower my defenses for a bit, when I hear "AMERIKANER!!!" from my left speaker. I jumped out of my chair by several inches and was rightfully slaughtered.
I had had enough, shut the game off, and went to bed, but I actually sat up in bed for about 1/2 hour, twitching at every damn creak that the building made.
Conversely, I was really impacted by the storyline of Unreal II. Believe it or not, that game had an incredibly strong character arc. (It was not the mindless shoot-and-kill like the original Unreal.) Every non-action sequence and cut-scene was dedicated to character development and relevant story progression. Anyway, throughout the whole game I obviously learned more and more about the background of my crew - why they left their home, what they want in life, why they made the decisions that they did. The writers really did a superb job of helping you to bind with and to understand the crew.
SPOLIERS AHEAD, but the game is four years old, so doubt it's much of an issue.
When the ship and crew were destroyed and the main character drops to his knees in sorrow as he watches the ship blown apart in the atmosphere above him, my jaw just dropped and all I wanted was revenge. No game had ever made me want revenge like that before.
The final sequence where he plays their final, recorded messages of thanks and goodbye - now alone in his escape pod - had me almost close to tears. I was really hoping for some kind of expansion pack that shows that the crew actually made it out alive, but alas it was not meant to be. I had never gotten that emotional about video game characters before, but the story writers for Unreal II really were just that good as far as I'm concerned. (Others believed differently. So be it.)
Finally, although I have always been one to respect and honor our military and the sacrifices that they have made (and currently make) for us, if Medal of Honor was anything close to what our soldiers had to go through in World War II (and I'm sure that it was actually much, much worse), I have a much more profound respect for those who fought and died to preserve our liberties.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
...when I tripped and pressed the NES reset button with my toe and I then realized I didn't save and had just lost about 9 hours worth of game play.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
This is something I've been really interested in for a while. I think that the idea that video games evoke as much emotion as movies, books, movies, or art is absurd, and I suspect any real research would show this.
One theory is that games are almost always winnable by definition which doesn't accurately mimic reality, and this blunts an emotional response. There's no real question about the fate of the hero, they can eventually "win" one way or another. You're not going to get to the end of Super Mario and find the princess behind an impassable brick wall (this is a hack I've considered doing.)
My friend and I were discussing this, and he pointed out that early video games sometimes had movie-like scenarios but were not winnable. Take Robotron for example. Sure there are some maniacs who can play a long time, but for the most part, it just gets faster and there are more aliens and robots until you die. Personally, I did find the game subtly disturbing.
Part of all this may also be due to the fact that games tend to dwell more in the realm of craft rather than actual art. Videogame art is emerging, but there's not much exposure, or a middle ground between pure conceptual art and something that's actually fun to play. Perhaps Katamari Damacy is a step in that direction, since the importance of goals and challenges is diminished in that game. It becomes more of just an activity, a time where you exist in that world. Frankly, that's the game that's evoked the most emotion from me in recent times just because it's so beautiful visually, musically, and conceptually.
-paul
I'd have to question the personal insecurity of the person who wrote this article if they included such a statement. How could any decently intelligent person come up with this, let alone a supposed gamer, unless they felt deeply threatened by the apparent results of the research?
The point of feeling emotions because of games isn't because of 'instability', emotional or otherwise (no matter how many guys would like to put on a tough act), but because emotions are natural. They're especially natural concerning any interaction, of which books, movies, and games can be considered a part of. In books and movies, you sympathize, make a connection with the characters. You sit 'on the edge of your seat', so to speak, as the story develops and as you begin to understand the characters and their interactions and development more. You see more into their lives, and appreciate the author for taking the time...if it's well done. It's not really any different for a book, game, movie, play, or any other method for telling a story.
Today, I was watching 'Dad', starring Ted Danson and Jack Lemmon. I tend not to cry all that often, but it was such a good movie that it had me sobbing, among feeling many other emotions.
It's a sad day when people who play video games can be easily considered emotionally unstable for feeling things about a video game character, or crying when something tragic happens, or after a long, hard-won victory.
However, why would crying at a failed landing approach in MSFS (particularly after the 300th time) be considered any worse than cursing at the game, or your own lack of skills, in frustration or anger?
That seems like completely unreasonable double standard, to me. For many decent games, like Freespace 2, Septerra Core, even Rogue Spear, The Thing, and System Shock 2, who hasn't displayed a wide variety of emotions? Who hasn't cheered or cried with the thrill of victory? Who hasn't felt anger, remorse, or sadness at a humiliating defeat? Isn't it the emotional response to begin with which keeps most gamers playing? It's not just that there is a challenge floating around that makes most play, it's the emotional response to that, to the story, to the challenge itself.
"A Goddess rarely smiles for she is forced by others to be an island unto herself." - Zephiris
1: waiting for Daikatana
2: Reading the reviews of Daikatana .
3: Playing Daikatana
4: running out of time in prince of Persia
5:Loosing my last ship being one kill away from a high score on space invaders due to being nudged
6: paying for an Atari Jaguar
7: Remembering playing Daikatana
8: Daikatana in general
9: Playing Mario 64 (tears of joy)
10: EA getting the license to make James Bond games
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
You know I always loved to crash the planes in Flight Sim (my dad is a pilot) and I'm a big RPG fan.
Of course then again, while it was fun they never had a good animation, and for some reason those failures to thread the World Trade Centers... don't seem to be as "funny" as they were back then... ok they still are funny, but not as laugh out loud.
The problem is that most of the games you play that are action just are testies burners, not emotional escapes. An RPG has characters you work with for 20 hours or so, compare that to about the 5 hours you play most games, or the 10 hours for extremely long games? It's not the same. In fact look how much story there is in that 10 hours?
There are exceptions, such as MGS and MGS2 and MGS3 all of them fine for evoking emotions, but Hideo is a genius at that. But I don't know many games, or even RPGs that can evoke those emotions any more, FFX did well, Xenosaga always does good, but the fare we have now compared to some of those the SNES rpgs is poor. Though I have sorta loved Rachet and clank recently and it does move me at times.
It's all about the characters development, and story, not about the game, and that doesn't mean a emotional game is good, I love the testies burners too. But for a great game in my book I need great character dev, and great story.
Of course it could be argued that RPGs simply attract more emotionally unstable gamers, and that if these same players were forced to try Microsoft Flight Simulator, they'd cry like babies when their Cessna crashed into a pylon during a failed runway approach.
- flying stuff bores me to tears.
...grumble... where's that bitch Diablo... need a punching bag...
Um, yeah, ok.
As a looooong-time RPG player (going back to 1st-ed. D&D from the 70's, not just CRPGs), if I was forced to play Microsoft Flight Simulator, I probably would crash my Cessna into a pylon just out of sheer farging boredom. Don't get me wrong, I love combat flight sims, but the pointless fly-civilian-aircraft-around-just-for-the-sake-of
Also, I love the hack-n-slash aspects of many CRPGs. Call me a sadist. Yeah, the storylines are a draw (when they're not the generic rescue-the-princess-from-the-evil-badguy crap), but mainly I like improving my player-character(s) and finding new and interesting badguys to take on in battle. The cool stories are just gravy. Mind you, that's just PC/console RPGs, I take a different approach with the pen-and-paper variety, where you get to interact with real people playing their characters, as well as the DM/GM role-playing everyone else in the world.
But back to this non-topic...
Ok, maybe "emotionally unstable" does accurately describe my game-playing mentality. But not in the pussified way the Gamesblog author fantasizes.
That was the only game i played where i came close to crying, though I think it had something to do with the beautiful, haunting music. The plot was something that anyone could connect to (human race on the brink of extinction, but it was so brilliantly done). No other RTS even comes close to touching this one's feet.
Respondents overwhelmingly cited the Final Fantasy series of role-playing games from Square Enix as the most emotionally rich games, and the death of Aeris in Final Fantasy VII was the scene many people said made them cry.
The most emotional scene in a movie (according to respondents) was when they sent the hotshot pilot with a powerbook to fly into the UFO thus defeating the aliens in Independance Day.
C'mon people, the characters in FF7 were so unlikable and Aeris' death pissed off more gamers than saddened them. Dang, I've lost my healer... that sucks.
For me, the most emotional scene an a game was during WindWaker when Link was setting sail with the pirates. I was full of tears just watching him wave goodbye to his grandmother. That was a great role-playing experience. Tetra's comment afterwards was so well timed.
SquareEnix knows presentation. They need to work a bit on making players emotionally invest (beyond Final Fantasy Fanboys) and they really need to work on gameplay (I'm pointing fingers at the damnable Kingdom Hearts and Crystal Chronicles) but they have the potential to make some great games someday.
Did anyone here NOT cry when Aeris died? Me, I curled up in my leather gaming chair and wept like a baby when Cloud released her into the pool under the City of Ancients. It wasn't until my Knights of the Round had finished whomping Sephiroth's final form that I could finally quit grieving and move on with my life. My PSX controller still has the dried tears on it.
Think of all the people that cry after seeing movies or at a sad book ending. Why shouldn't a well developed and involved video game cause people to tear up either?
There are 11 types of people, those who know unary and those who don't.
Being a die hard fan of the original Gabriel Knight adventure game by Sierra On-Line, I recently acquired a copy of the sequel, The Beast Within. Having completed the game and being blown away by the characterization and performances of the actors, main and bit, I can hardly fathom why there hasn't been a deluge of live-action video adventures. I've loved adventure games since the earlier Sierra games (Police Quest 1 for DOS was my first) so I can say with some authority that the inclusion of live actors over text-spoken or even fully voiced animated characters brings the player that much deeper into the story.
The game can be found for as little as $3 on eBay and it's compatible with WinXP with a free patch. Wait until the sun goes down, dim the lights, open your windows (chilly night air really enhances the mood), and be mesmerized.
Those three games scared me. :) The usage of the audio is incredible to give me the chills.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I think my exact words were "Oh my god, not more of this bloody library! I can't take it! When will it end "
I've played several games that have evoked an emotional response. Ico brought a tear to my eye as I played through the ending. (SPOILER) After all that Yorda and I had been through together, after protecting her from the shadow guys and defeating her evil witch mother, Yorda was the one that became strong and made the self sacrifice to save me. It was a very dramatic ending. However, if you stick through the end credits you get a very satisfying second ending.
Another game that evoked a different kind of emotional response was Deus Ex. I remember when I played it, after I was given the three different possible ending scenarios, I stopped playing the game for a week or more while I worked through the mutually-exclusive options that I had, trying to figure out which was most true to how I viewed myself in the game. (SPOILER) In the end, I decided to bring about the Second Dark Age, that despite that huge cost, the benefits it gave (freedom for the people) outweighed them.
FTA:"More than two thirds of all video gamers feel that video games already surpass, or will soon at least equal movies, music and books in delivering an emotional impact."
Here's a link to Bowen's write-up of the research:
http://www.bowenresearch.com/studies.php?d=3
This is a survey of a subset of gamers, whom Bowen was able to survey online. "Surveyed gamers" cannot be extrapolated to "all gamers."
66% is not more than 2/3. For that matter, "has the potential to equal or surpass" != "will soon be at least equal".
Guardian Gamesblog needs some help getting their facts straight. They should have also referenced the source of their blog entry.
I would also guess that two-thirds of avid book readers think books have a greater potential for emotional stimulation. Ditto for movies amongst avid movie-watchers.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Lunar 2 and MGS3 both have made me cry
Here would be some of the moments that tended to keep me awake. There have been a lot more - I tend to take everything out of games that have some real substance.
Creepiest: A lot of different kinds of creepiness, I think, but I think I could call Elegia Eternum and Excrucio Eternum for Neverwinter Nights some of the creepies adventures I've played. Psychological horror is pretty tricky to get right.
Most evil: I was genuinely chillily touched by Horance the Lich in Ultima VII. I really don't know why, but that was one of the cases when an evil character's, um, evilness really shows well. I was definitely zapped. "This guy is evil."
Nerve-wracking disgust due to messing with the player's head: Ultima IX. I start a-playing. Ol' LB says Despise needs cleaning. I go deep in the dungeon. In the end, this badly dressed guy waits. He wants me dead, of course. Soon, he starts spinning some ridiculous theory that he's my good buddy Iolo, didn't I notice his bow and lute? "yeah right," thought I, and killed the guy. "Real Iolo uses crossbow. Do you think I'm some kind of amateur?" Well, turns out that whoever wrote that crud didn't know that kind of facts, and made the whole thing sound like the Oldest Trick in the Book. I cried for the day when I realized I had just killed Iolo, yes, it was that horrible. No, actually it was Electronic Arts that made me kill Iolo. That's right. Boycott them!
Weirdest source of guilt: Opening of Metroid Prime. The scan visor records everything there is to know about the Parasite Queen. I kill the thing. I escape the spacewreck and touch down on the planet. And then it hits me: I had just destroyed something unique - yes, an ugly space parasite monster thing, but still - and the only thing that survives is the scan in the computer. After that realization, a lot of monsters in the game seemed to make me scream "I can't kill that, it's too cute". =(
Automatic tears: Death of Sniper Wolf in Metal Gear Solid. Even sadder in Twin Snakes.
Vampire: Bloodlines had one of the scariest scenes I've ever played. I'm not usually easy to scare, but the Ocean Front Hotel had me creeped out the first time I played through. Headphones made it worse.
It just depends on how emotionally open you are. If you harden yourself enough, you can make fun of Schindler's List. If you open yourself enough, you can cry during an AT&T commercial.
-------- Sound
As much as everyone are like: "wow great graphics etc etc", for creating emotions, the audio part is MUCH stronger.
What you see you can generally grasp, you know what you're up against*, but when you hear something, you don't know what it really is, it scares you more or sooth you, if you hear a voice of someone who came to help.
Music in games is also a very important emotion maker. When you hear a soothing melody, you feel good. When you hear it turning dark, you get emotionally prepared. After you finish a very emotional part, which had some specific music, the next time you'll hear this music you'll think of that part subconsiously and get that feeling again.
* Many games have very visual strangeness that seriously creeps you aswell, as in Silent Hill, System Shock2, the Thief series and so on. Note that usually creepy sound effects escort the visuals.
-------- Immersion
As for crying, it has to be something YOU as the player care for inside the game. In many cases, when it's not done too well, you can see character A feeling the pain about event B, however you don't feel bad for the event, but for the character feeling bad.
To make the player care, there need to be enough content to make the player feel s/he's actually a part of a world, where things you do actually matter.
For example, when NPCs actually have interesting things to say, about THEIR world, and not only about things important to YOUR quest, if these ideas don't cross.
I don't think any game made me really cry, but there were times I really felt a loss. It's especially strong if the game allows multiple paths, where usually you'll have the loss, but one "best path" will allow complete victory. So you'll play through the game once and feel really bad about it, and then play it again, literally going through hell to achieve it.
^_^
I got a little tear in my eye when I read the Peter Jackson/Halo story.
I've yet to see a movie or read a book that made me experience vertigo.
you really should pick up a copy. It's an excellent game, and it's cheap
... somewhere ...
Grrrrr...! And, of course, it's for PS2, not a PC. Well, I'll just have to pretend that I know what you're talking about from the Ico web site. It's too bad, too, because the trailer looks pretty good - and the music was really good. It just seemed to fit while at the same time not seeming to be totally appropriate. Would that there were a functional PS2 emulator for the PC out there
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
AERITH!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
(aerith is the direct japanese translation)
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. - HHGTTG
Silent Hill 2 has, in my opinion, the single greatest ever moment in gaming history, and most people pass it by without knowing it. Read on.
*** SPOILER *** Your flashlight is used to find out where the monsters are in the dark and reveal them. It's ironic that your character finds the flashlight pinned on a mannequin that has his wife clothes, and is startled by the light illuminating him. Since at the end you find out that his wife didn't actually die of cancer, but was killed by him, and the whole alternate Silent Hill 2 and "monsters" are the product of his demented mind and crushing guilt. It makes sense, since what the game is actually trying to tell you is that *he* is the real monster.
You only realize this the second time you play and I believe me, it will send shivers down your spine. The way that game messes up with your emotional senses is something you find only in very good movies.
Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
The problem there is that you pass judgment upon a whole medium based on... what? An old arcade game like Robotron, some arcade-ish Mario games, and basically a puzzle game. Now I won't say Mario games aren't good games, but really, they're just easy-to-play arcade-ish games that have almost no story at all. They're not made to be deep or emotional, they're just meant to keep you happily clicking a controller button for a few hours.
So basically you look at a few games that don't even have much story and don't even try to cause an emotional response, and then extrapolate that all games are like that. Well, no, you just told me there what games _you_ play, not what all games are.
Extrapolating your experiences with Mario to an RPG like Planescape Torment (where BTW, the whole goal is to die and go to hell, so I'm not even sure it counts that much as a happy end in the classic sense) is just silly. It's just as silly as if someone came and said that no movie ever had a plot or any character depth, based on their watching only porn movies. (Not saying that Mario is like porn and not trying to insult Mario or its players, but as plot and character depth goes, that's really about the closest movie category. Insert any other movie category with nearly zero story, plot or character depth, if that makes you feel any better.)
There are _plenty_ of games with deep and involved stories and plots. If you don't want to play those, fine by me, that's a valid choice. I know there are people who actually want a shallow entertainment and hate long cut scenes or reading text in a game. It's different from my own tastes, but I can understand that point of view too. But then please don't come and pretend that all games are Mario and Katamari Damacy, because that simply isn't true.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Call me crazy, but I think that AoE2 is still an awesome game. And I don't know if it counts as a "game" since it's just a cinematic, but I think that the opening is genuinely moving, and it immediately sucked me into the game before I even played for the very first time. Very well done, Ensemble!
"More than two thirds of all video gamers feel that video games already surpass, or will soon at least equal movies"
If you're out there labeling yourself as a video gamer, I'd imagine that you would feel that way. I'll bet if you ask people who label themselves "movie goers" if video games already surpass ore will soon at least equal movies, they'd give a much different response.
"The game industry has all but abandoned the adventure genre where we were just beginning to grow up and see some good storytelling. Now we have crap! Gamers need to watch better movies, read better books, and learn to appreciate themes outside of their adolescent power and sex fantasies."
Actually, not meant as an offense or anything, but you make a major confusion between what the publisher wants and what the gamers want.
E.g., you blame the disappearance of adventure games on gamers, which is just false. You basically rehash the common myth that everyone stopped buying adventures and got hooked on FPS, and that's why adventures nearly went extinct. But that's a myth. The publishers dropping that genre happened at a time when more people bought adventure games than ever before. It was a market that was actually _growing_.
You want to know why that genre was really dropped? Because it was more expensive to produce than a no-brainer Quake clone. At that time scripting a complex adventure game cost a lot of money. Or you could make a FPS instead for a fraction of that money. Remember we're talking about the old FPS, where there was no story and no scripting involved. You could just license a cheap 3D engine, slap a couple of skins and levels together, and that's it: you had a game.
With a FPS you didn't even have to outsell adventure games. If with a FPS you sold _half_ as many copies, but it cost a tenth of the price to produce, you still got way better ROI (Return On Investment.)
_That's_ why FPS exploded back then, not gamers. Again: you blame on the gamers something that was purely the publisher's financial decision.
And that's just one aspect where it's the publisher's own taking the easy route, not really the gamers' choice.
E.g., you mention teenager power and sex fantasies? How about the fact that the best selling PC game of all time was The Sims? You know, a game that has _no_ combat, _no_ PvP power games, and _no_ sex whatsoever? We're talking a game where the most violence you could see was a cartoonish cloud when two people fought, and even then you had to actively try hard to get them to fight. And a game where the most "sex"-related content was a hug and a kiss. (The love bed got added in a later expansion pack.)
(And as a tangent, to illustrate the dichotomy between who the gamers are and what the publisher does, I still remember some ads for The Sims 2. I don't know if it's a country-specific thing, or if that was world-wide, but anyway: You have the sequel to a non-sex game. And it's a game which sold to a helluva lot of women. And generally whose average gamer was _not_ in the horny teenager bracket. So how does EA market it? Well, by hammering on the sex aspect only. There were ads after ads about having sex with the neighbour lady while the wife is away, sex on the sofa, sex in bed with two women, sex in the kitchen, sex, sex, sex. It made it sound like that was all there was to the game. Some idiot marketer at EA decided to aim their ads at the only market they understand: horny teenagers. Even at the expense of potentially alienating their core fans. I'm not a prude or anything, but it made it sound like something really lame and not worth the money. I mean, eh, I don't need to pay $40 just to enact sex fantasies in a sex game. It's not like I can't find better images on the internet for free.)
E.g., although not from your message, another common complaint is that somehow it's gamers who value graphics over substance. And again, if you look at the sales, that's just not true. You may notice that about 10 times more people play WoW, with its cartoonish graphics, than the graphically-superior Everquest 2. You may notice that, again, the mostly-2D low-res The Sims outsold FPS games that had vastly superior graphics. Or you may notice that even in the FPS category, the ancient CounterStrike is still _the_ most played online FPS, even though it looks like ass compared to newer games.
So basically, please. While I can relate to yo
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
That was awesome, and I would have given you another mod point if I had one.
One thing though, just to nitpick a trifle: I believe pets don't step on cursed items, that's how you can tell they're cursed without wands or scrolls. To be honest, I haven't played for awhile, so I may have that wrong.
I'd continue this reply, but I'm fainting so I need to get something to eat. Ah, here we are, I knew I had a tin left. Mmm...smells like newts.
just feel horrible for the guy. nothing ever seems to go right for him. beautiful soundtrack with the same violin theme from the first one and the credits music 'Late Goodbye' by poets of the fall. great games.. the first and the second probably two of the best ever made in my opinion. I remember the first two Quest for Glory games from Sierra having a profound impact on me as well. And the 'Conquests of Camelot' (also by Sierra) which is the first "real" pc rpg I ever played when I was a kid. great stuff :)
Nobody seems to have mentioned it, but I think the music in a game has a lot to do with the emotion. If I see a character die, so what, but if I see the same character die accompanied by strings, especially well played violin or piano, that'll make my skin crawl. A recent example I can think of is FFX (not 2), that game had really good music in my opinion.
By the way, what's up with slashdot's formatting right now? Its strange!
the question doesn't make much sense to me. i've read books that made me cry, and seen movies that've done the same. i've also played video games that have done the same (i still get misty-eyed every time bugenhagen reveals the truth about seto to nanaki). i don't think the medium has anything to do with it.
in fact, i think the medium is completely irrelevant. it's the CONTENT that elicits emotion. so maybe a better question to ask is: when will video games meet or surpass books and movies in terms of story? i suspect many would argue it's already happened in many cases.
In Fallotu, there was a spot in the military base that was scripted. if you had Dogmeat with you, he DIED on one of the lasers.
It was one of the saddest moments in all of my game-playing years.
My friend said that when aeris died, he got pissed, and cried, because he had just leveled her up to level 50 or 60 or so and she just up and died.
seriously, Aeris's death would be a ot more emotional if there weren't items in the game that resurrected dead people and you could easily have a stack of ninety-nine by that point in the game.
*cough*Phoenixdown*cough*
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
Made me cry...
The original Quake (esp. in early 1997, when the graphics were still pretty cutting-edge). Living away at university for the first time ever. Alone. At 03:00 in the morning. In the dark. In a room so cold you can see your breath in front of you, lit only by the flickering blue light of the monitor. I fucking defy you not to flinch when you heard the random occasional growl coming from the speakers just over your right shoulder. And then, when you get so into the game you start instinctively flinching by turning your in-game viewpoint through 180 degrees.
Grim Fandango. Any of the long gaps between the four "years" of gameplay, but especially Manny giving up finding Meche and taking the job at the diner. Glottis apparently dying, your joy at finding you could (possibly) resurrect him, and the frustration of staring at the door to heaven, knowing you were inches away from entering, but can't yet because you have to go all the way back to save your faithful friend. No other game has ever got me closer to tears than the end of Grim Fandango.
X-COM: Terror From The Deep. Waiting on the Geoscape screen for the next UFO attack. The impossible tension of the (turn based!) missions, accentuated by the masterfully tension-inducing music. Knowing (esp. early-on) it doesn't matter how long you agonise over a decision - one wrong move and your carefully-nurtured favourite X-COM soldier is fish-food.
Half-Life, when you first meet the US Special Forces. And then they start shooting at you. What? Fuckers are supposed to be rescuing us!
Genius moments every one, and easily the equal of any film or book I've ever read.
Everything in moderation, including moderation itself