Research on Emotion Game Sequences

[werky]

Hi



I?m performing a research on videogames and looking for their capacity on eliciting emotions in viewers and players. So I would like to ask some of your time and knowledge in helping me. I need to find out computer/video games sequences that in your opinion are capable to elicit in the player each of these emotions:

. Happiness

. Anger

. Disgust

. Fear

. Sadness

. Surprise

. Relaxed



I would like to ask you when answering to think about the concrete sequence and try to forget the overall experience you get from the game.

To avoid a too much wide comparison universe, I would like to ask you to limit your game choices to the genre action/adventure or game with story, single-player, preferentially 3d. Choose a game outside this group, only if you can?t find anything in there and also if you believe that this other game category is really able to reflect that emotion type without any doubts. The sequences chosen will be integrated into a database that will then be tested.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

[Y S]

Spoilers

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR FINAL FANTASY 7 & 9, SHENMUE 1, RESIDENT EVIL 1, AND METAL GEAR SOLID 2 & 3.

-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


. Happiness - Seeing Zidane reveal himself in the last Stage Play in Final Fantasy 9 I thought it was a sad ending and that he would never return but seeing him come back was a good feeling Garnet was so happy too.

. Anger - The last scene in Shenmue 1 when the game says something like thus the saga continues/begins and the credits start to roll i actually thought Ryo goes to China and and I thought I have done at least half the game but no I had to wait a year for the second game man that pissed me off even thinking about it makes me ANGRY.

. Disgust - The death of Iwao by the hands of Lan-Di in Shenmue 1 opening scene.

. Fear - The first time you see the giant snake in Resident Evil for GameCube.

. Sadness - The death of Aerith by the Hands of Sephiroth at the end of Final Fantasy 7 Disc 1.

. Surprise - Seeing Eva half nude in MGS3 right before Snake fights them 8 guards.

. Relaxed - Seeing Snake for the first time while playing as Raiden and knowing that Snake still lives I felt Relaxed because now I thought maybe Snake helps Raiden out and at that moment the Game some what felt easy with just having Snake around.

Sorry for spoiling anything but I did worn you from the start.

And that as they say is that, please let me know what you think of my answers?

[tokyochojin]

Bollocks; edited.

[Y S]

Aaaaaaaaaaah, please tell me its not true!!


Anger- Fighting Mr CheeZe himself, Gill on 3rd Strike seems to make me alittle heated.

Happiness- Killing Sephiroth in FF7



Disgust-Ryo's pulling technique, in Shenmue 1

Fear The boss battle with Vulcan Raven in the Ice tanker of MGS.

Sadnessff7 Aeris "death" scene, Sniper Wolfs death scene MGS

Surprise Finding out that i could legally go on a date with a 15 year old in FF7

RelaxedNights into dreams..

Dude he asked for Scenes not games notice how Ive mentioned and described a scene and when roughly it happens.

[butchcvc]

brilliant comment about ryo!

[werky]

Y S, I want to thank for this valuable information. This is what I?m really looking for.
No problem at all with spoilers, that's the only way to perform this work.


What we'll do is pick the largest possible answers and build a database of emotional sequences. Then we'll according to the number of times cited, choose two sequences for each emotion and test them with people here in the lab.


One question about the Sadness and ?The death of Aerith?. Everyone in the web keeps citing this scene. Could you please describe it to me. Is this a cutscene, is it interactive. How much interactively is it? I?ve ordered the game from amazon, but I?m still waiting.

Could you cite another scene of sadness not from FF? :-)



YS i would like to ask you another thing, i know this highly improbable but anyway, if you still have saved games for any of these sequences?

[Tobal]

FF7 Spoiler

->Open Spoiler<-

Aerith Death scene was none-interactive moment , its remembered by a lot of people because by that point of the game you could get attached to the characters, Specially the Aerith/Cloud/Tifa love triangle, and the fact the players had not seen Aerith in the game for while at that point, so this was an expected reunion between Cloud and Aerith but cut tragically short by the main villian killing her even before they can talk, with a last smile from her she drops dead in Could arms and Septhiroth gets away, leaving you to fight monster while the brilliant music plays inthe background throughout.

[Y S]

Y S, I want to thank for this valuable information. This is what I?m really looking for.
No problem at all with spoilers, that's the only way to perform this work.


What we'll do is pick the largest possible answers and build a database of emotional sequences. Then we'll according to the number of times cited, choose two sequences for each emotion and test them with people here in the lab.


One question about the Sadness and ?The death of Aerith?. Everyone in the web keeps citing this scene. Could you please describe it to me. Is this a cutscene, is it interactive. How much interactively is it? I?ve ordered the game from amazon, but I?m still waiting.

Could you cite another scene of sadness not from FF? :-)



YS i would like to ask you another thing, i know this highly improbable but anyway, if you still have saved games for any of these sequences?

Y S, I want to thank for this valuable information. This is what I?m really looking for.

No problem mate.

One question about the Sadness and ?The death of Aerith?. Everyone in the web keeps citing this scene. Could you please describe it to me. Is this a cutscene

It indeed is a cutscene with in game graphics I believe, but its been so long I cant remember the reason for it to happen. All that I remember is that at the time of the game prior to her untimely death, you think that a love story is beggining to take place between Cloud and Aerith and that it would continue into the game since your still on the first disc. This however was not to be because out of nowhere Sephiroth who by this point in the game you and the character Cloud hate more than anything, jumps down behind Aerith (who also at this point you become too atached to) and stabs her with his sword thus ending her life. If you have not been through this game you must stop what ever you are playing at the moment and go through it, trust me you will fall in love with Final Fantasy games. Also it is a cuscene so there is no interactivity through it.

Could you cite another scene of sadness not from FF? :-)

Yes mate I have all the time in the world right now. The scene I'm about to describe is the scene from Final Fantasy 10 called 'The Spring' i'll come back to this in a little while, there is a long scene in FF10 prior to the 'The Spring' in which Tidus and Yuna watched over by Khimari, are talking about giving up the mission at hand (the mission involves saving the world at the cost of Yuna's life) and going to a far away place (Zanarkand in the past from where Tidus has come from) and having fun while not worrying about the evil around the world, Tidus tries his best to persuade Yuna and at one point she buys into it which is sort of a happy moment, untill she starts to cry realising its not going to happen and in this moment the cutscene 'The Spring' takes place (I wont spoil it). The only thing at that time I said out to myself was (as much as I can remember my exact words) "My God the PS2 really does have an Emotion Engine this is the best cutscene Ever" and that as they say is that. If you have not played this game please do so I have been through it recently again because I lost my first save, and I have a save inside Loca where you can watch all the Cutscenes (The CGI/FMV ones) from the game, if anybody wants this save send your PS2 Memory card to me and i'll put it on and send it back to you (PM me if your intrested).

if you still have saved games for any of these sequences?

No mate i only have a Save for FF7 before the last boss battle, but if you want a save for all the FFX Cutscene's then PM me.

Thanks for Reading my 'Writings on the board'.

[Neon Ignition]

Two games I remember had me was the end half hour of Metal Gear Solid and the entire of Panzer Dragoon Saga. I had never played RPG's much but especially the torture scene and the ending of the game.

[werky]

Tobal and Y S thanks again for your time

I found some game saves in the net, I?ve the system max drive (usb key) where I can put saved games and play them.

let me know from the scenes in the link for max drive, if there?s any scene of the scenes you're talking about near of these saved points.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/save/197344.html

in gamespot they have also the cutscenes for download: http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/finalfantasy10/media.html

However I would prefer the saved games, because i want to put testers in the game playing and only after same playing let them see the cutscene. I want to find out if there?s any chance to elicit the emotions we're here talking about without the letting the player pass though the cutscenes.



Thanks a lot you and all the people that are helping me. Thanks.

[Y S]

Anytime

[Nijo]

Without wanting to jump ahead too much, I'd imagine that the testers would have to play through a fair amount of FF in order to feel such emotion at that scene? You can't have emotion without some degree of attachment, and you can't develop attachment without sufficient time.

Or?

[werky]

@ Nijo



Like you said, you?re jumping ahead



What I can say to you at this moment, is that we?re aware of that, and that we'll try to reduce this context variable to the minimum.

However we?re starting from a point where we know that emotion will be less intense because of that, but doing the comparison with movies tested in the same way will give us some space for manoeuvre.

[Y S]

Really for the emotion to take effect properly I recommend you and your testers go through the Games mentioned from start to end and take notes as they progress.