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

[beniki]

Most of us like to bang on about how video games are an art form. I believe they are. So here's my question. Art is meant to express ideas, and emotions. So what's the hardest one to express in a video game?

I think that hope is the hardest one to express. Video games are usually about problem solving, and there's always a way to beat the puzzles, which is all about satisfaction and winning. If there isn't then it's usually a ploy by the designer to make you feel frustration or futility.

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.

I can only think of one game which does this, and that's Robot Unicorn Attack. The combination of rainbows, music and text all hinting at wishes and fighting against fate just seem to me to be an expression of hope against all odds. Which is why you keep playing it, even though you know you can never beat it.

So... what do you guys think? What's you hardest emotion?

N.B: I know I'm reading too much into a flash game. Just humour me

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

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.

Most developers are uncomfortable about making their characters cry. Both because it's hard to do realistically and because a large demographic of teenage players are turned off by any character shedding tears.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Anger.

It's really hard to display anger properly without coming across as comical. It's usually bloated and sudden. There is rarely any proper build up to the anger. Real anger has subtle hints of rage before the outburst.


This made me laugh so damn hard...

 

[mindlesspuppet]

It's really hard to display anger properly without coming across as comical.


This made me laugh so damn hard...

Agreed.

Anger always, always, always seems hilarious in games.

I think that hope is the hardest one to express. Video games are usually about problem solving, and there's always a way to beat the puzzles, which is all about satisfaction and winning. If there isn't then it's usually a ploy by the designer to make you feel frustration or futility.

Just the opposite- despair.

Hope and despair aren't that hard, there's no reason a game that tells a story can't convey these emotions just as easily as any other medium. I think the Mass Effect series works as an example for both, Half-life as well.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

Despair.
Anger.
Sadness.
Love.
Fear.

Oh wait...more than one.
Eh, I can't choose, games generally suck at conveying emotions.

 

[Vivace-Vivian]

Dissappointment.

 

[icame]

Fear is done horribly in most Survival horror games. Usually have to play silent hill after to cleanse the pallet.

 

[icame]

double...

 

[Squidden]

I thought Mass Effect 2 did a really good job with hope.

I'd say that fear is probably the hardest. Fear in RPGs or MMO's is usually due to the fact that you don't want to lose your items. Alot of times fear is set back by your massive firepower or strength, which is why I like Amnesia so much. There is nothing you can do to fight back.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Hope and despair aren't that hard, there's no reason a game that tells a story can't convey these emotions just as easily as any other medium. I think the Mass Effect series works as an example for both, Half-life as well.

Perhaps I'm just hardened but I've never had any moments of hope or despair from either of those series' (haven't played ME2). Exhiliration yes, amusement yes, but no matter how bad things get you can just shoot them until things are better. So there's no need for hope either.

Perhaps the OT could clarify if they wanted the emotion that is hardest for games to inspire in the player or have its characters voices/actions convey, I was a little confused.

 

[Squidden]

Hope and despair aren't that hard, there's no reason a game that tells a story can't convey these emotions just as easily as any other medium. I think the Mass Effect series works as an example for both, Half-life as well.

Perhaps I'm just hardened but I've never had any moments of hope or despair from either of those series' (haven't played ME2). Exhiliration yes, amusement yes, but no matter how bad things get you can just shoot them until things are better. So there's no need for hope either.

Perhaps the OT could clarify if they wanted the emotion that is hardest for games to inspire in the player or have its characters voices/actions convey, I was a little confused.

Mass Effect 2 was certainly better at it than 1 for me, at least.

 

[badgersprite]

I'd say subtler emotions are harder to convey because voice acting is hard and facial animations in games are relatively limited. Any BIG EMOTION like anger, grief, love, etc, can be fairly easily conveyed in the sense that the audience knows what is happening; you know what emotion this is, even when it's badly done. More subtle emotions can fly under the radar completely. This is even worse in text games. There's no guarantee that someone playing a game will know when a character is being sarcastic if it's only text.

For my money, I'd say it's things like trust, anxiety or tension that don't come across very well. Characters in games usually have to really overplay this, or state it outright to get it across. I've had it happen before where a party member has been talking to the protagonist, only for a dialogue option like, "You're tense" or "You seem indecisive" to come up. I was like, "Huh? That's what you were conveying?"

 

[northeast rower]

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.

Most developers are uncomfortable about making their characters cry. Both because it's hard to do realistically and because a large demographic of teenage players are turned off by any character shedding tears.

Red Dead Redemption. That's all I'll say...

OP:
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.

 

[Alanosborn1991]

Sadness and despair, good thing Half Life nails it

 

[Au Naturel.]

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.

 

[Brawndo]

Fear of death. Gamers know they can just respawn/quick load and everything will be okay, so they are willing to take far more risks than they would in real life. One way to work around this is to make some kind of long-lasting penalty upon dying (example: the player permanently loses a random item he was carrying at the time of death, even if he restarts at an earlier save or checkpoint).

 

[Netrigan]

Panic.

Although I'm not sure any medium has really managed to capture that emotion. The opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan is absolutely brutal and probably one of the most realistic portrayals of war ever captured on the Big Screen, but you know it doesn't capture 1/100th of the pants-shitting panic those soldiers went through. To be able to feel bullets impacting inches away from you, to feel them whizzing by your head, knowing that the tiniest of margins separate life from death.

Games probably come the closest, like when you're attempting a really difficult boss fight for the tenth time and you have a tiny sliver of life left, ammo is low, but if you shit your pants it was probably because you were trying to hold it in instead of taking a game break.

 

[Gahars]

Angst, of any kind.

It's nearly impossible to express it with a game and make it (a) relatable for the player, and (b) not wangst, which it degenerates into 99% of the time.

 

[Brawndo]

OP:
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 didn't, because the game didn't spend time showing me the ordeal that the character was escaping from. Instead, all the game said was "OMG this place is evil!" and showed some snarling Soviets beating Reznov before handing me a minigun (wtf?) and letting me tear the place apart.