Being Scared in Games is Needed

zombieinthebackofyourcar writes "The Escapist has done an entire issue on why we love and need horror games. Jon Schnaars, an expert in psychology and mental health issues, writes about how we need to be scared to generate pleasure from the game. From the article: 'Perhaps the most important change made in the game mechanics of RE4 was fixing the camera behind Leon, providing a tight third-person shot through which the player could experience the action. Through this move, Leon has become every protagonist from every horror film ever made. He is the lone survivor; steadily trudging into the dark when all our instincts tell us it's a bad idea. And as the player, it is actually us proceeding into the dark, receiving (when we're not getting beheaded) our genre pleasure.'"

Comments

Horror, Genre pleasure, the Unknown

[ackthpt]

I don't know about Horror being needed. I sometimes like the idea of playing the monster, when the opportunity presents itself. Heck, I've certainly been one in the online games I play, where I go around slaughtering things to gain experience levels and take the victim's treasures. See it from their point of view. "Horrors, here comes that damn human again! Is there no end for it's thirst for blood? It'll probably go after our shaman some day, then were will we be as a people?"

Really, what we already know is that variety is what games need. If every game was based upon something jumping out of the shadows and ripping your lungs out, we'd have someone telling us what is needed is the safe-and-secure game genre where no harm comes to our valiant little avatar as he/she zips around collecting rings or what have you without repressing some proletariat.

My own take is I have long had a preference for games where the player explores the unknown. There may be danger, there may be reward, but cooling your heels doesn't do much for the sense of intrigue. Exploring dungeons and wiping out baddies, or going on raids day after day, to achieve enough levels to used some object or spell is, as a topic some time back pointed out, is work (you know, that four letter word.)

Ages ago I was totally wrapped up in the old fortran game Empire (eventually released as a PC game), until I'd played it enough to know what to expect. Nothing quite like the first time you're marching your little a into the black unknown only to find the enemy well entrenched, then to gear up your production for an assault. Eventually it was too slow and tedius. Same went for Seven Cities of Gold when you rolled your own New World (which wouldn't be at all like what you see on a normal globe) Exploring the unknown and facing risk is what gets the heart rate going, Grue or no Grue.

Re:Horror, Genre pleasure, the Unknown

[AKAImBatman]

Let me just come out and state what you're trying to say: The article is full of it.

Horror is not necessary to a video game and more than it's necessary to Chess. A video game is about a goal that you wish to acheive. Generally, obtaining the goal should imply some sort of challenge, otherwise there would be little point.

Now if one dives into the challenge portion of video games, one does realize that these challenges do cause stress. Usually we're talking about a raised heartrate, higher state of alertness, and concentration. But it can also mean fear, angst, and concern. It all depends on the type of game, and the goal that the player wishes to achieve.

If horror games are do it for you, is there any surprise that the player will expect to be scared out of the wits? But where's the fear in Super Mario Bros? Or Tetris? Wing Commander? Honestly, there's none to speak of. In the case of Wing Commander, the fantasy aspect of becoming a star fighter pilot is the overriding aspect that makes the challenge interesting. All these games are interesting without any hint of fear. Humans need to be stressed, but different people have different stress needs. Recognizing that when creating a game can help a designer make it much more accessable to the target audience.

In short, beware of the pop psychologists.

Re:Horror, Genre pleasure, the Unknown

[joshsisk]

The article isn't really full of it... because the article doesn't say what the synopsis seems to think it does. I read the article, and it basically is a academic analysis of Resident Evil 4, and why it works as a horror game. No mention anywhere that I saw of every game needing horror, or even that every gamer needs horror games. It's simply an analysis of RE4 as a part of the horror genre, with some information about the genre.

Re:Doom

[Slovenian6474]

possibly cuz you're not 13 anymore

Subtle Horror

[thatguywhoiam]

I know there's going to be many many comments to this effect, but there is one game that scared the bejeezus out of me: Silent Hill.

And it wasn't any kind of gore, or zombies, or anything like that. Well, lots of things like that, but that wasn't the main cause -- it was the foreboding atmosphere.

Abandoned schools are scary. It taps into childhood fears. Seeing the 'regular' world turned upside down and redecorated with body parts and rust is deeply unsettling. The lack of regular communication with other characters in the game, the ambient sound effects - my god, the sound effects work in that game was good. I remember standing in what I think used to be a gymnasium but in the 'other' world, and just standing there, listening to this distant clank-clank-clank of some unseen machinery. I left my character standing there for awhile, just taking in the sound, and I truly began to feel disturbed.

It was shortly after that I descended the ladder to the first full-on satanic ritual looking setpiece in the game. This gigantic cucumber with four legs ran out and split in half as it opened its mouth, revealing about a million teeth, and i swear to fucking god I actually dropped my controller and shrieked like a little girl.

Good times.

Behind the subject scenes.

[frogstar_robot]

Those type of scenes never scared me. What they did do was exasperate the hell out of me. "You moron! The psycopathic killer from beyond the grave is going to bash your skull with an axe as soon as you step in there."

"Don't these friggin' idiots EVER look behind them? Especially after four of their friends bought it that way."

And don't get me started on body disposal methods for supernatural psycho killers. These numbdumbs just bury Jason then act all surprised when he comes back a month or two later. HELLO!, you had to kill him ten times over just get him in the grave.

You can only heavily stun such a creature at best. Should one of non-idiot characters manage this then the correct thing to do is to bind ankles and wrists with HEAVY chain or rope then thoroughly dismember and slice and dice the creature. If intelligence was employed in the binding then the fact that the creature lives through this should pose no problem. Don't let a hack writer take your life at the last minute. The pieces should then be thoroughly burned and the ashes scattered in separate bodies of water. Any solid pieces should be encased in concrete and likewise scattered. Throughly soaking any remaining pieces in holy water is optional but can't hurt. NOTE: Do NOT put holy water on an intact Creature; it'll just wake up angry.

The case of the Liquid Metal Terminator was one of the rare cases of correct Super Creature Body Disposal. Sumbitch probably wound up in 40 different cars. RoboCop 2 had a good Creature Dismantling but they botched the job by dumping the pieces where his buddies could put him back together again. And those IDIOTS who thought running Christine through a car-crusher was sufficient, they should have checked with the Connors.

Maybe I should start one of those Evil Overlord type lists for Super Evil Creature Combat.

Re:Horror no, but fear YES!

[vertinox]

Horror is not necessary to a video game and more than it's necessary to Chess.

Horror as a genre is not needed unless you like that, but fear is.

I could think of a high emotion chess champion game in which you fear loosing in front of thousands of people for example or perhaps a chess game where you have your house or family lives on the line or if you loose that atomic weapons will be unleashed on your nation. Ok... That is a bit extreme. Lets just say you play a game of virtual chess for 1,000,000 of your gold pieces in World of War craft.

Well... Depending on how much you value your virtual gold, you will be sweating it and seriously thinking about each piece you move. Fear is the main reason behind gambling. It makes the game serious and ups the stakes.

Take if like this... Back in the good old days of Ultima Online, I would be dungeon crawling and then a player killer shows up. Now I could run or fight or I could die and loose my things...

Since I know dying will set me back a bit and make me try a frantic run for my gear and loot after I get rezzed, I have to weigh in my options to whether or not running or fighting will be fun.

And if I do run how much of a chance of actually making it out of the dungeon alive?

Of course throughout the years of playing UO there are plenty of times where I have fought and won, ran away, and sometimes died and had my things taken from me.

But the heat of the battle and the knowledge all my loot was on the line was exciting much more so than say fighting an AI monster who I knew I could simply walk away from if I lost too much health.

Also this applies to FPS games... Everyone was used to the Quake system in which you died and then you instantly respawned without much fear of dying.

However, when Counter-Strike came along you actually got scared of dying because not only did you loose the weapons you saved up money for buying, but you had to sit the rest of the round out until one side one.

That is the best formula for playing any game that is for those who want to fill that "gambler's buzz". The player must have some type of risk in where if they loose they will be punished and loose whatever they had previously worked on.

Personally, as comforting as save games and not loosing your items in MMOGs, a player must face some type of punishment for loosing.

There must be some fear of loosing otherwise we will get bored of a game like it had god mode turned on.

But I would also like to point out if that punishment for loosing is too great, then the game gets pretty tedious pretty fast (otherwise known as loosing over 15 hours worth of leveling when you die at level 59 in EQ arrrrgh!!!!)

Re:disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt I'm alone.

Maybe you are alone.

So terribly, frighteningly, alone.

whooOOOOoooOooooo!!!!!