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Thread: The lure of emotionally complex video games...

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    Smile The lure of emotionally complex video games...

    The lure of emotionally complex video games...

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    A growing genre of video game offers deep, emotional experiences. Experts see possible benefits, as well as harms.


    Research indicates that many players, particularly longtime gamers who grew up in the 1980s and 90s, now crave games that make them feel something — not just happiness and excitement, but also sadness, guilt, shame, and remorse, said Nick Bowman, a gaming researcher at Texas Tech University. In short, they want the kind of meaningful experience more commonly associated with novels and film. Thanks to technological advancements in graphics and sounds, developers are creating games to meet that demand.

    And a modest but growing body of communications and psychology research shows that players do, indeed, feel a wide range of emotions while playing games like Life is Strange. Engaging with unpleasant topics can cause a player to reflect on important real-life issues and “grow as a person,” said Daniel Possler, a media researcher at Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media in Germany. In fact, some research suggests video games are uniquely suited to provide these emotional experiences because they are competitive, interactive, and often social. Still, it is unclear how long these emotions last, or whether feeling them has a downside.


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    https://undark.org/2021/11/03/the-lu...tm_source=digg
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    IMPress Polly (12-09-2021)

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    This is an excellent characterization of where I am. I'm a long-time gamer who grew up in the late '80s and mostly the '90s, got into gaming when I discovered the original Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991, and today mostly play what this article calls "emotionally complex video games" in search of some kind of meaning. When I got into gaming originally, it was just fun entertainment. Nowadays I value it as an art form and prize connecting with a game's characters or general atmosphere even more than "having fun" per se. In fact, people here might even remember me promoting and recommending Life is Strange specifically here on tPF back when it was first released in 2015, although it's far from being like my favorite or anything.

    The game I've completed most recently, Solar Ash, is a perfect example of this type of game. The premise is that you're something called a Voidrunner out to save your planet from being sucked into a black hole by skating to and destroying giant monsters called Remnants and activating a device called the Starseed to reverse time. It's ultimately revealed that your planet has already been destroyed and is indeed the cloud you've been skating atop the whole time and that the Remnants you killed are (or were) the spiritual remains of other Voidrunners who also activated the Starseed (which is what made them into monsters). The game's main "antagonist" is a giant being named Echo who actually turns out to be the protagonist Rei's alter-ego; the part of herself she's condemned time and again already by going through this same cycle of activating the Starseed to reverse time, then beginning her quest to activate the Starseed all over again in yet another vain attempt to regain her world which cannot be regained. The solution is to make a moral choice in the end to do something different. This causes the player to switch to controlling Echo instead, who you then must use to free a Remnant version of Rei from her monstrous form in order to merge with her and become whole again. You can get the mental health-oriented metaphors and commentary going on here to find a message about the vanity of most other games' power-centric design themes and the importance of accepting loss in order to be able to move on.

    I like these types of games because they're different and evoke a range of emotions from me beyond just the satisfaction of meeting a challenge. I get bored with more conventional games that are driven squarely by entertainment value these days because, well, for lack of a better way of putting it, I feel like I've been there, done that, and don't find it nearly as fulfilling as I used to when I was younger anymore.
    Last edited by IMPress Polly; 12-09-2021 at 10:26 PM.

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    I feel like games were just as emotionally complex back in the 1990's as they are now. Final Fantasy VII, for example. That game had a profound emotional impact on countless millions of gamers. It was a masterpiece of emotional content married to solid gameplay. I think people are confusing generic increases in game complexity with an increase in emotional complexity. Games are certainly more complex, but I doubt whether they're becoming more emotionally complex. I also wonder if perhaps the gamers themselves are becoming less emotionally complex, and if this isn't causing them to use video games to compensate for their own lack of emotional depth. I'm an avid gamer, but I do worry about the increasing trend of digital escapism. People need to remain connected to nature and to the material world. Video games and the like will never replace genuine experiences and emotions.
    Power always thinks it has a great soul, and vast views, beyond the comprehension of the weak. And that it is doing God service when it is violating all His laws.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ethereal View Post
    I feel like games were just as emotionally complex back in the 1990's as they are now. Final Fantasy VII, for example. That game had a profound emotional impact on countless millions of gamers. It was a masterpiece of emotional content married to solid gameplay. I think people are confusing generic increases in game complexity with an increase in emotional complexity. Games are certainly more complex, but I doubt whether they're becoming more emotionally complex. I also wonder if perhaps the gamers themselves are becoming less emotionally complex, and if this isn't causing them to use video games to compensate for their own lack of emotional depth. I'm an avid gamer, but I do worry about the increasing trend of digital escapism. People need to remain connected to nature and to the material world. Video games and the like will never replace genuine experiences and emotions.
    We're talking specifically about games that are designed primarily to have an emotional impact on the player, not just any game that might. I would agree with your contention that such games have been around practically forever, but in terms of older games that fit this mold, I'd think more along the lines of Out of This World than along those of Final Fantasy entries. Anyway, the article's point is that these games now actually have a real market these days, whereas they were once pretty much invariably commercial flops, and that certain demographic groups (like mine) form the bulk of that market.

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