Felt all too real?

[chevkoch]

So I'm playing (just typing?) Adventure recently, because of rekindled interest in Interactive Fiction and it happens there's this little chirpy bird. And my inventory lists a wicker cage. So I catch the little guy and learn that it's not too happy about it. Bear with me for a moment.

After saving the game and later deciding that this text adventure is actually too dull for my taste to go back to it, I find myself thinking about the little bird still trapped in that cage in my abandoned game. It doesn't feel right, so I'm starting Adventure up again, releasing the bird and committing to a final save before I quit for good.

This behavior (which perhaps made you shake your head in a wtf response) let me think about how real that bit of game content actually felt to me in contrast to most other gaming experiences that appear to be of an almost generic valium-veiled, emotional trigger devoid kind.

In what gaming moments have you found yourself caring about some character or outcome of a situation to a greater extent than you expected?

[Darwock]

Shooting guards in the nuts in MGS2. It felt so wrong.

Also switching to the SOCOM and killing already tranquilised guards.

[chevkoch]

While I can appreciate humor involving violence directed at genitals to a certain extent, I was actually not trying to open an irony thread. Though my initial post does sound a bit over the hill hippiesh I have to admit.

*edit* Having read your post above again, perhaps you weren't trying to come across jokingly anyway. The nuts bit might have misled me.

[hankwangford]

I've only ever felt this way once, and that was when I was playing Call of Duty. At the start it felt like a typical FPS so I just shot everybody I was told to as usual, but by the time I'd gotten past Stalingrad and was sniping out Germans in Berlin it honestly made me feel so insanely sick to my stomach with fear and concern for my fellow polygonal humans that I very nearly stopped playing it altogether. In fact I probably would have done if I wasn't safe in the knowledge that I was on the last level.

Awesome, AWESOME game but I don't think I'll be touching it for some time as a result.

[Sketcz]

Star Control 2 - 3DO:
When you hear about how the Shofixti met their demise, told by a Scottish narrator no less. Very emotional, and it went to great lengths telling you about how they valiantly sacrificed themselves to save the federation. (which inevitably were destroyed anyway)

The way it was told, made you really think about self sacrifice, the whole idea behind a small group going against a bigger stronger army, knowing fully they will not only not win, but not survive. Theres something very emotional that concept, kinda like on LoTR3 where the King yells "death", and the army thinks they are going off to their deaths, but will fight bravely anyway.

Better to die free than in shackles kind of mentality.

Poignant in the extreme and possibly my personally strongest emotional moment playing a game. I couldnt play anyting for the rest of the evening it affected me so much.

[Alf-Life]

In a similar type of thing to the MGS/2 one, I feel really guilty when I kill surrendered guards in Perfect Dark, unless they almost killed me.

But to be honest, I've never felt this way about a game perhaps barring Ocarina of Time - when I first passed 7 years and went out onto the market I didn't know you could travel back later with the Master Sword, and I almost felt so sick and sorry for everyone in this world that had now succumbed to the evil.
It was also an almost nostalgic feeling - that I could now never go back to my [avatar's] carefree childhood. Bold statement in gaming if you think about it.


Apart from that, I've often felt 'that sick feeling' in online FPSs I play if there's ever a friendly-fire incident, particularly Halo PC with it's default FF on.

[chevkoch]

I remember Kingpin, where you had it easier right at the beginning if you clubbed one girl to death to steal her money to buy some weapon (if I recall that correctly). On second play-through I found out thru sheer perseverance that you can just run by some guards and get a gun this way also.

Killing that defenseless woman (who didn't attack you, if you wouldn't) actually felt awful.

[Robster]

I find this thread very intresting. I dont share any of these feeling you have all described as Im a bit of a sicko and love killing people in games.

A prime example of my sadism: in SP:PT I knock a guard out from behind with the but of my gun and while they are on the floor unconsious I shoot them in the face from point blank range.

This thread can also raise the issue of people immersing themselves totally in the game(the whole point of a good game) to a minimal stage where the players emotions influence how they play.

Do you only find this in really good games you play or in all games even those that suck a little/alot ?.

Sorry to steer the topic off centre

[Sketcz]

I find its only in the really excellent games. Even Super Metroid made me feel emotional, when you first touch down on that empty desolate planet, with just the bugs. Or when you meet the "green ostrich" later on.

I find its only games that have already gripped me from a gameplay point, so perhaps Im more susceptable to its emotional influences later as a result?

If a game is rubbish I either switch off or hope for it to end.

[Balou]

HA! Games still need to travel a long way to make me feel sorry for anything immoral I might have done (in a game).

Quite the contrary - there are not enough games where you are the evil bad boy!

HA HA HA!
- I AM 'Iron Man'


But serious:

If the guards in MGS2 would cry as hell and the pants would be soaked full of blood after you hit them there (blood still dripping), so you really can see and hear the pain he is undergoing - then there is a solid basis to evoke some depressing emotions.
But as it is in current games, it is more of a "neat" addition that he actually reacts when you hit him in certain areas.

In fact, it?s all a bit comic-like (still), and I think it should stay that way.
(in animations, for example, you laugh you ass off if a certain "Homer S." falls down a 400 meter deep canyon)

It will be a different matter when games become more realistic (I mean really close to reality), or if you can do the same online in a FPS where there?s actually a person behind the virtual opponent.

[SonicMarmite]

I had EXACTLY this problem on hitman 2.

I was doing the embassy mission where you have to rub out the russian general and nab the briefcase. I poisons his drink, passes it to him, and after a few seconds he clutches his guts and runs to the loo where he dies. So like the professional hitman I am, I then moves onto objective number 2, and goes to wait in the next room from teh ambassadors office. The spetsnaz bloke marches him in, I sneak in behind em, and cap the spetsnaz and then knock the ambassador out.

So, job done, or so I thought. I wander down the stairs, into the main corridors at the back of the mansion, and take a stroll through the ballroom on my way out. Only, all I could think about was how, even though all these party guests look like they`re having an innocent and fun time, they`re all a part of the evil plan. And it starts me thinking, well if they`re in on it, how can I let them escape without punishment. So then I whip out my MP5 and massacre everyone in the building. Including the cook, who actually keeps the secret evil plans under his chefs hat.

[jezzace]

I really have no problem killing innocent people in most games like you've mentioned (PD, MGS etc.). A game has to work really hard, to create proper characters in order for me to care what happens to them and not bust a cap in their foo' ass! Part of the fun of games, to me, is that you can do these things which you'd never dream of doing in real life. Imagine playing GTA if you felt guilty every time you hit a passer by!

The best example of an emotional problem in a game for me is Deus Ex where you board the plane to meet the resistance leader and your objective is to kill him but your brother says he's a good guy. I didn't know what to do...then that crazy robot lady came in and was going to kill him so I killed her instead fully trusting my brother was right about that guy.

I also felt a bit sad in FFVII when Aeris dies

[Ady]

I felt this way with the Shenmue games. I genuinely cared for Ryo and his plight. This made the last disc of the second game all the more heartwarming...

And now I'm playing Wind Waker. It has the best Link rendering so far. You can't help but love the little guy. Every time I hurt him, I feel bad.

[Sega Ages]

Things that affected me

- When GTA1 first came out, shooting innocent people as they were running away from you made them sprawl across the floor trailing blood. It bothered me.

- Deciding to slaughter a female Sith who trusted me in Knights Of The Old Republic. She died alone in a remote corner of a valley. Her screams still echoed in my mind as I took her belongings, and I lingered staring at her dead body on the ground, remembering the conversations I was just having with her that day... she didn't seem like a bad person at all, and I took her life just to give myself a shortcut in my mission. I was a Jedi and it was one of the worst things I could have done. I felt awful.