What's the hardest emotion to express in a video game?

[M4A1Sopmod]

Actual love. So few experience it in real life, so it's impossible to feel it in a game.

So because you think few people in reality find love (which is absurd) you assume that makes it impossible for it to expressed in a video format? I don't see the logic.

I think you are hurriedly dismissing a very valid point. You believe that their claim of "few people find love" is absurd, but there is no real definition of what love is. In the end you are just pitting your definition of love against theirs, and to claim that yours is more valid is shortsighted and pretentious. I for one, don't believe in "love" in the conventional sense, so the claim that love is a difficult emotion to evoke or express in a video game is completely valid. All of this is, of course, in my own humble opinion and you are more than welcome to disagree.

 

[beniki]

Just the opposite- despair.

Whether you're trying to convey that the characters are despairing their chances or you want the player to bewail the odds now facing them, nowadays even a gigantic multi-mouthed demon eating existence can't bring it fully across. 'It's okay, something will save me'. These moments are so rare that they've earned their own unofficial title of 'Player Punch', for that rare moment when you are put into a state of fear or sadness by a game.

Yeah, true actually. I thought that despair could be given by an unsolvable puzzle with the end goal on the other end of it. Given a long enough run up, you might get despair out of that, but it'll probably be more like frustration.

A game AS an expression of a general emotional concept or a particular character displaying emotion?

Inspiring emotion in the player. You can look at a picture and think that person looks sad, but I think games have an easier time of going one step further and making the player feel sad.

I also think that some games really should be about investigating emotion. We're a little beyond the days of doing what would be awesome, and discovered it mostly involves zombies and robots. Now we need to have some pretentious nut jobs making the game just to make the player cry.

Love, people say I love that character but do you really? (No, you don't)

Yeah but you know, even though you won't admit it, there was that one NPC you kept in your party just because you liked her. It was always Gwen from Guild Wars for me

Panic.

Download the Amnesia demo. Trust me.

Hope is difficult, but some games can pull it off. Who didn't feel hopeful breaking out of Vorkuta in Black Ops? I know I did.

I personally think that no game yet has gotten real happiness right. Other than the occasional "We did it! Yay!", there really isn't any true happiness in games.

I think that Half-Life 2: Episode 2 expressed fear perfectly with three words: "Oh my god." Just whispered like that. I think you know when.

I don't know if that was hope though. That's more akin to your survival instinct. Hope for me should be more of an uplifting feeling.

As for happiness... Kingdom Hearts 2. To be fair, the rest of the game had an awful lot of filler, and some very simplistic parts, but the end of it all was spot on for happiness.

This is good stuff guys! Nice to know I'm not the only one reading too much into our electronic toy boxes

 

[Halo Fanboy]

Anger

The topic is about emotions in the player not emotions of the character. (The character depicted on screen does not have any emotions anyway.)

Love, despair, sadness, hope, anger and all those other things is natural to any game that is challenging and competetive that you can get invested in.

So for games that are any good the rarest emotions are humor and sexual lust since those don't come about as a result of losing or winning a challenge as much as others.

 

[Woodsey]

Dissappointment.

I dunno, BioShock communicated that to me extremely well.

ZING!

OT: I've never really seen that many games touch on actual sadness.

 

[beniki]

Actual love. So few experience it in real life, so it's impossible to feel it in a game.

So because you think few people in reality find love (which is absurd) you assume that makes it impossible for it to expressed in a video format? I don't see the logic.

Sure, it's very hard to 'manufacture' love, and since it's a form of entertainment that requires little actual EMOTIONAL input, it damn well WOULD be difficult to create true love.

Example: Alyx Vance. Yes yes cliche. While I liked her, I got the feeling she was FREEMAN'S love interest. Not MINE though. I felt no love for her, but I adored her as an NPC. As just a...helpful and interesting character.

Also: Jenny from The Darkness.

In the end, I can't get over the fact that a controller stands in my way. True immersion cannot be achieved, and thus true LOVE cannot be found in a game.

That's only if we stick to conventional story telling. Theoretically a 4th wall breaking game could have you investing enough in a virtual persona, which you can only access through the controller, to trick you into feeling love. Kind of like developing a friendship over the internet.

Kind of horrible when I say it like that. It might not be true love, but it certainly could be a very good illusion, and one which cannot be matched by film, books or painting.

 

[TheCorpseMan99]

Sincerity (freedom from deceit, hypocrisy, or duplicity; probity in intention or in communicating; earnestness.)

In an age of poorly characterized protagonists and almost comical villians, we can't really get a feel for the person behind the assault rifle and in turn, we can't really know why it is they do what they do.

 

[Popido]

Disgust, unconformity and guilt.

I find these rare when not pointed out to the player.

 

[XT inc]

I think the hardest emotion games try and portray is love and lust. They spend so much time beating around the bush with the notion of love and sexuality it comes off as fake or extremely over the top, it makes no sense." No but of course I risked my neck against hordes of demons so In the end I could hold her hand and take her to brunch"

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

I think it would have to be an extreme emotion, like hatred or love to be honest. I say this as while I may say "OMG! I love that character" I don't mean I'm in love with them. And while a character might be a twat and I "hate" them, I don't hate them for what they did, just because they are an annoying douche. Plus the hatred turns off when the console does

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

Fear. I have yet to see proper, mind shaking, overpowering... fear. I want to see a mental breakdown in a game, not just 'Oh my god! PEW PEW PEW!!' I haven't really played a lot of survival horror though, like SH.

Play 7 days a skeptic, It is made my yahtzee and I heard that some people didn't even finish it, they were "too scared".

But don't play the game expecting a scare though as that would just ruin it.
Which means I just ruined a great game for you, HA!

Oh, and play the rest of the chzos mythos as well.

But that's only if you're into point and click adventure games.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

True LOVE cannot be found in a game.

For you. You are not the entirety of human beings.

WARNING: Extremely lengthy, yet observational, post.

Here's something I learned about "Love" from Wild ARMs...

Love - The ability to protect what is precious.

This comes with a dual catch - what is precious and if you can protect it. Now, allow me to share my view on this. As a hopeful comedian-to-be, this is one of my bits.

Now, WHAT exactly is precious? Your belongings? The things you supposedly own? Like your vehicle? Well, if you think that, lemme put that in perspective for you. Let's take your vehicle and put in the middle of a barren place. Then, we drop a bowling ball, an anvil, a desk, the Liberty Bell, Mount Rushmore, six skyscrapers, a pregnant hippo, the flaming corpse of Jerry Falwell and the gay Teletubby onto your precious fucking car. Then what're gonna do? BUY A NEW FUCKING CAR! One that looks just like it. But without that annoying tick in the engine that you could never figure out what it was.

Now, you might say "Water is precious!" Well, indeed you might. We are, after all, comprised of roughly 75%-80% water. We need a minimum amount of it to regulate and keep our bodies running somewhat normally. But if you think it's so fucking precious........ask BP. Betcha THEY don't think it's precious. Or the military or other companies that continually put crap in the water and underground water resevoirs that keep people like Erin Brokovich employed until well in her 160s. Ask them how precious THEY think the water is.

Then comes the ultimate kicker......life. People think LIFE is precious. People! Heh, wonderful lil creatures aren't they? What do they do? They KILL! Each other! Sometimes in a wondrous spectacle of sound and fireworks. Over what? God. The leading cause of death amongst humans.....is something they dreamt up in the first place! Gee, I wonder what will happen first - people will stop killing each other over "God" or the discovery that there's no more room for cemetaries? Life's precious....right. And when they're not killing each other over incoherent reasonings about divinity and ancient tribal shit, THEN they kill themselves through various poisons - overuse of certain drugs, defiling the planet and then eating from it and going to McDonalds. Now, you say that YOUR life is precious. OK...but from whose point of view are you speaking? Surely there are other people out there who think your life is DEFINITELY NOT precious. Remember those nutty religious people? Let's forget them for a moment. Take a look at me. Me! Do you believe I think your life is precious? Hey, I'm a comedian! It's either I kill you or I bomb. So, survival of the fittest motherfuckers! But, there is a fair argument that you, being alive, feel that your life is precious. Fair enough, I'll give you that. However! There's that dual catch, remember? Your life may be precious, but can you protect it? No you can't! You can prolong it, and I'd love to see the statistics on that actually being a good thing. I'm pretty sure that if George W. Bush ended up an abortion, the world would have breathed a collective sigh of relief. Pretty damn sure of it. Right along with Adolf Hitler, Princess Camilla, Justin Beiber, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and the cast of Jersey Shore.

So, then if life does not fall into the category of "love", then what does? What is precious that you CAN protect? Hey! What about the Constitution of the United States of America? That's precious isn't it? Especially to those soulless, honorless, yuppie cocksuckers we call politicians. They can't HELP but mention how precious it is. Well, folks, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news...but, uh...George W. Bush was right on that count. It IS just a piece of goddamned paper. But, what's ON that piece of paper? Besides 200+ year old ink. Ideas! Hey, ideas, man! Are ideas precious? If they are based on positive construction WITHOUT infringing on life or the right to choose how to live - you better believe they are. And can they be protected? Through use and practice and extolling of their basic virtues - you better believe they are. And dreams! Dreams are the same deal. Martin Luther King had a dream, didn't he? That was most certainly precious to him and those that believed in its virute. And can it be protected? Through use and practice and extolling of the basic virtues that the dream was consisted of. You betcha.

Now, a true story about "love", without setting fire to Jerry Falwell's corpse - when I was in high school, I dated a young woman. This young woman told me of a dream she had. She said that, one day, she wanted to play in the Major Leagues. (Baseball for those who didn't catch on) This young woman, who had about a graceful a swing as a rabid charging rhino with a lit roman firecracker up its ass, no running ability, but decent glove skills, said her dream was to be in the MLB one day. What I did, ladies and gentlemen, now that I look back on that moment, was the most brutal and barbarically insensitive thing I could've done at the time.

I laughed. BWAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I laughed! I laughed???

Well, here's how the thought went at the time (and yes, I know - Young man. Tried to think. Please forgive this transgression upon the universe.) - this woman, who would've had to basically change her body to look like Chyna from the WWE to play in the MLB, increase her baseball skills to untold levels, would've basically had to have performed the near impossible. But over time, I realized that her dream meant so much more. A woman in the MLB - equality amongst genders in sports, should one achieve such a level. And that gradually morphed into the realization that one day the girls could, and rightfully deserve to, beat the boys. Is that dream precious? To those that realize this world has been sexist in favor of men for far too long? You better believe it is. And can you protect it? By extolling the basic virtue and principle that, though minor differences persist, we are all equal in life and equal in love? You betcha, goddamnit. And you gotta love it.

End post.

 

[Death God]

Fear and love. Fear always sounds forced and love sound dry and also forced. It is a hard thing to replicate genuine love in a game or actual fear. But anger would also be a close second.

agreed, though I would tie it with sadness/despair. Some games just suck at showing it and most of them that I see that can pull it off is because the person isn't looking directly at you or you can't see all of their face, so it looks more real.

So true. It is a shame that video games haven't got those key emotions down yet. After as many years as they have been around, they should have at least come closer than what they have now.

 

[MetaMop]

Grief. Hard to care about a character dying when it's so easy to avoid death in games.
Oh no! The friendly mentor character is dead from a bullet to the face!? Oh my go--wait...I get shot in the face all the time and I always make a full recovery so long as I avoid getting shot for a few seconds. Quick! Get the friendly mentor character into cover and he'll be fine!

 

[ShakesZX]

constipation

 

[Squilookle]

But we've never seen a game which fills us with a sense of hope. That even though there's no possible way we can win, we still think we have a chance.

That's because... you know... there's no possible way to win, and we all recognise that.

I'd say the hardest are intelligence, and subtlety. And if anyone thinks JRPGs do subtlety then think again.