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

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Thaluikhain

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Jan 16, 2010
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Brawndo said:
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).
Yeah, that's very true. Not being able to save during missions helps alot, though, but gets frustrating.

On the other hand, games tend to be terrible at conveying genuine emotion of any kind. Or rather, like any other medium, it's so easy to cock things up terribly.

Still, same with movies, wade through enough drivel and you'll find somethign decent eventually.
 

IndianaJonny

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

I think a lot of the problems in conveying character emotion come with the, as yet, still fairly low level of authentic complexity when it comes to facial expressions and this can really harm the suspension of disbelief.

Having said that, there are a few films that manage to pull this off. Gollum from 'LoTR' and, more recently, young Kevin/Clu in the recent 'Tron: Legacy' being but two examples.
 

Sn1P3r M98

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Onyx Oblivion said:
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.
Agreed. The only game I can think of off the top of my head that conveys anger well is Splinter Cell: Conviction when Sam is told
The truth about Sarah
and starts throwing things around and yelling; it seemed pretty real.
 

Fenra

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Mourning is one games seem to have trouble with, at least from my perspective, the problem I think is they tend to show it as just what happens the instant a character dies, from anger and promises of revenge to overblown, dramatic, tears streaming down the face stuff.

While that might work sometimes for that particular scene in the story its still not exactly how it works in real life, mourning in real life is something that hits you much deeper and lasts much longer.

A good example of this that struck me recently was in DA:O, was replaying it and the way alistar handles the loss of Duncan, its set up well for a while right after it happens, his confusion and loss, but once you pass lothering, outside of a few nice conversations you can have in camp, he becomes the cheery, comic relief at times, character and youd have never thought he just lost a father figure to him.

Now I dont want him to be blubbering like a child through the entire game, that wouldnt work either and would change him from the character we all love so much (or at least i do heh) but it would be nice to have it mentioned more, like have him sat around the fire in a dedicated cutscene (not an optional camp dialogue) where he looks into the fire and just reminisces about the times he spent with Duncan and what he meant to him.

I dont know, its a tough one but if games are to truely become art they need to get these tough things down heh
 

LordGarbageMan

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My vote would be hatred/loathing, because you have to develop the villain, or at least have the villain interact in the storyline or with the protagonist enough for the player to know/understand him. It has to be believable, too many times the villain is just a hollowed out stereotype. Maybe other people can hate easier than I can, who knows.

Oh and also I guess this goes for other npcs as well. I mean there are a few rpg companions that I can think of right now that I despised, but that was most likely more annoyance than hatred.
Edit:Wow this goes with judgement101's post.
 

Special Kiz

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Empathy with characters in games is hard to achieve, and that is what you need to generate both believeable emotion in-game and a emotional response within the player (beside the joy of completing a level or frustration and anger at dying for the 100th time). Unless a game is really immersive, you are aware that the consequences of your actions or actions of NPC's (if there are any) are limited to the game universe you are in.

The unconscious transition of "NPC in my squad" to "squad member", or such equivalent to the game you are playing makes or breaks your emotional investment to the game universe you are in.
 

Savagezion

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mindlesspuppet said:
Agreed.

Anger always, always, always seems hilarious in games.
GTA 4 handled it really well. It all has to do with the voice acting and animators as models aren't really "expressive" by themselves. Even animation needs help through voice acting now days.

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.
Eh, I think hope is hard to display in the same way that you know the star of a TV show isn't going to die. By this same logic hope is hard to instill in the player because they know there is an end of the game. Robot Unicorn didn't really have this effect on me though either.

I would have to agree with hope. It would be hard and unforgiving as a game mechanic to do it right.
 

Nouw

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Onyx Oblivion said:
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...
Are you sure because that just looks like bad 'acting' to me but nevertheless I think I see where you're coming from.

Aside from anger (huh watch some of the Starcraft II cutscenes, I think one of them I can't name shows anger well) I think it'd be love.

It's hard to experience it in real life so it'd be even harder in games as kman123 said.
 

Karhukonna

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I'd consider the hardest emotions to express being mixed feelings. You know, when you both hate and love something. It's hard to give examples, but most people who've ever had to make a truly difficult decision know what I mean. I've never seen these emotions expressed well in any media.
 

Death God

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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.
 

Andrew_Waltfeld

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Death God said:
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.
 

Austin Howe

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Love. See Final Fantasy VIII. A pretty decent attempt, but it does fall short in some regards, and the fact that, let's face it, "they" (by which I mean basically JRPG companies) really haven't tried it since-

(Someone from crowd: "Final Fantasy X!!!")

-IN A GOOD GAME-

(Again:"Kingdom Hearts!!!")

Ok, yeah, the romance in the original game was pretty cute, but of course it wasn't really a deep, developed relationship, AKA, the kind someone who's not 10 could relate to.

(Again:"I'm sure Persona has tried it at some point!"0

FUUUUCCCK. Ok, anyways, I'm just saying it's not usually done well.
 

EmzOLV

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I'm going to agree with those who are saying anger.
I mean, I sometimes get really into a storyline, but when it comes to the expression of anger, it is either very very sudden, or it doesn't fit in, its too exaggerated, the facial expressions are over the top, or its just very emotionless but the words are angry. It seems like there is never a middle ground, never really a build up where perhaps you are empathising with the character to the point where you are angry alongside him or for him.

But maybe its just me! I'm thinking back to the past years worth of games. Perhaps someone can highlight a game which does show that? :)
 

M4A1Sopmod

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Any emotional response would be fine with me. I haven't played a video game yet that has made any sort of lasting emotional effect on me. Before you ask if I have played any "emotional" games I believe I have played a fair share of games designed to tug at my cold, calculating heart-strings.
 

thefleeger

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Depression. Even in a main character. Games seem to jump from character to character and scene to scene fast enough, there isn't really any time to get rooted in it. The character can sigh and look at the floor, but that isn't depression...that is a case of the downs. Since depression is rooted in sadness and taken a few steps further, it's hard to get the development of depression in a character. Even with a fantastic background story to make you want to bleed from your tear glands, it just falls short of depression and ends up as the sighs, groans, and moans.