Hello all! Long-time poster, first-time threadstarter. During my long and illustrious gaming career, I have played a number of scary and intense video games. I've ventured from pitch-black dungeons [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_of_Daggorath] to infested spacecraft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Shock_2] to underground secret labs near Chernobyl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]. Even though I sometimes dread playing these games, I still kill the lights, throw on the headphones and hunker down as I pit myself against chainsaw-weilding Spaniards [http://www.figuresworld.net/video_games/resevil4/re4chainsaw.jpg], faceless nurses [http://th01.deviantart.com/fs8/300W/i/2005/326/8/3/Silent_Hill_Nurse_2_by_CancerPuddin.jpg] and creepy little girls [http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/images/promoimages/d/dime/fright_night/fear.jpg].
I've noticed, though, that there are a lot of gamers who don't play this sort of game the way I do. Whether through a desire to avoid excessive amounts of fright, or a lack of respect for the atmosphere the game attempts to create, some people will treat a scary game like a party attraction rather than an intense experience. Quite frankly this confuses me- why buy The Suffering or Condemned: Criminal Origins if you don't want a scary game? Even the people who throw on rock music and storm through the Shalebridge Cradle with enough ordinance to level the place make me pause and scratch my head; I understand that that particular level is a "format breaker", and some folks might not have been ready to deal with it, but why not give it a try?
To me, playing a scary game without risking being scared is like playing Guitar Hero without speakers. But I'm curious as to how other gamers prefer to handle scary or intense games (or if they choose not to at all) and why.
I've noticed, though, that there are a lot of gamers who don't play this sort of game the way I do. Whether through a desire to avoid excessive amounts of fright, or a lack of respect for the atmosphere the game attempts to create, some people will treat a scary game like a party attraction rather than an intense experience. Quite frankly this confuses me- why buy The Suffering or Condemned: Criminal Origins if you don't want a scary game? Even the people who throw on rock music and storm through the Shalebridge Cradle with enough ordinance to level the place make me pause and scratch my head; I understand that that particular level is a "format breaker", and some folks might not have been ready to deal with it, but why not give it a try?
To me, playing a scary game without risking being scared is like playing Guitar Hero without speakers. But I'm curious as to how other gamers prefer to handle scary or intense games (or if they choose not to at all) and why.
