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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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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).
#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.
The game industry has all but abandoned the adventure genre where we were just beginning to grow up and see some good storytelling.
Adventure occationally makes a comeback in RPGs. Elder Scrolls: Morrowind is a great example. There's plenty of plot and tons of exploration. The trouble is that the sequels to such games miss the point and fairly universally evolve towards a combat mechanics focus in an effort to gain universal appeal. As long as the reviewers continue to punish developers for neglecting combat and multi-player capabilities, and developers continue to do everything poorly rather than focus on doing one thing well, games will continue to have crappy plots and literary qualities.
Another perfect example: Xenogears. The game was almost all plot, and the reviewers trashed it for that. Now there are pseudo-sequels and they added so much combat and level grind that you have to buy a 100 hour "episode" to get 20 minutes of plot out of a game.
learn to appreciate themes outside of their adolescent power and sex fantasies
Those things describe at least half (but probably more like 90% when you consider how much pulp is published every year) of the literature that mankind has ever produced. If you're willing to seek out the diamond in the literary rough, why can't you accept that there are the same things in the gaming world?
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
Newsflash: King Captured at End of Chess.
Just trying to bring you up to date.
"why can't you accept that there are the same things in the gaming world?"
Because so far, a story in a game has not incited a revolution of philosophy or thought, nor has it created an enviroment where it is real enough to make you feel a connection to it.
The problem with the game is just that... it is a game. You have to play it. And a literary equivalent to an amazing story, great characters, and so forth generally means you have to sacrifice the gameplay to have add depth.
I'm really interested in the topic of "games as great additions to culture". You have to remember that they aren't that old, I mean even comic books had to take a while to get to where we are today (with deep, developed stories and characters that are more realistic/dynamic and less soap opera). So hopefully a developer will come along who can make something that will create a real, long lasting emotional attachment... but until then, we'll just have to keep playing games and see what happens.
Everyone can disagree with me, but as far as I'm concerned, the gaming world has yet to produce a truly classic story with really memorable, deep characters. They are excellent, on the other hand, at creating pop culture icons that give us catch phrases.
Because so far, a story in a game has not incited a revolution of philosophy or thought
It's incredibly rare that a book will do this either. Becoming more rare every day, in fact, because publishing is profit driven.
Everyone can disagree with me, but as far as I'm concerned, the gaming world has yet to produce a truly classic story with really memorable, deep characters. They are excellent, on the other hand, at creating pop culture icons that give us catch phrases.
I disagree with you on the most fundamental level. Unless, of course, you also think that modern literature has yet to produce a story that isn't a rehash of an ages old plot. The problem isn't that games can't be an intellectual work, it's that the signal to noise ratio is roughly the same when it comes to games as it is with every other form of expression, and there are more books published every week than there are games published all year.
As for Aeris dying if FF7, well, I don't know how I would have reacted if that hadn't been spoiled for me long before I had any interest in playing the game, but earlier Final Fantasy games were so full of characters sacrificing themselves for each other that I probably wouldn't have been very surprised. I think losing the twins in FF4 was harder, personally.
Losing the twins could have been considered hard, but I think perhaps the weepiest Final Fantasy moment would be at the end of 10 with the fading away of those neat aeons and with then, the fading away/death of the main character Tidus. Very emotionally affecting, and made a friend of mine rather misty-eyed, and he didn't seem like the type to do that sort of thing. Kindof a tough guy.. on the surface. ;)
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