Emotional Contagion

For a long time game developers have been striving to transcend the normality of games being simply a source of entertainment. To make games more than just pieces on a board or sprites on a screen, they sought to make them an experience. To draw players into the world of the game, to sweep them up in the emotions of the characters, hold them at the edge of their seat, and leave them inspired. Some would argue that games have yet to achieve this level of depth. But some, including myself, would argue that games have touched us on an emotional level and inspired us to many things.

ooh gotta love dialogue!

Personally, there have been quite a few games that have affected me but one such game was Final Fantasy 7. The Final Fantasy series is well known for its deep stories and Final fantasy 7 was no different. The basic storyline was the usual “group of heroes save the world from a great evil” type story but it was the characters and the relationships between them that drew me into their world and caused me to become attached to these characters.  Given that before I owned the Playstation I only had the NES of which I only had five games, it is safe to say that I had never I had never experienced characters like that before, with sorrowful pasts and hopes for the future. Alongside the writing and design of the characters and story was the graphics which in my opinion helped to instill the characters within the hearts of the players. I will admit that the overall graphics for the game were pretty bad but it was because of these graphical limitations that further allowed the player to more easily become invested in the characters because they made the player fill in the blanks of the characters and what was happening on screen therefore allowing the player to project themselves or at least a part of their imagination onto the characters making them more endearing to the player.

Another memorable part of the game was its use of pre-rendered cinematics. These cinamtics noted special events that happen throughout the story, usually showing key events that progress the story and pull the player deeper into the game. These cinematics were so different in graphical style to the graphics of the game world that they inherited a kind of ecstatic feel to them. The player, already wrapped in the emotions of the characters leading up to that moment are pushed further emotionally when the cinematic starts as control is taken away from the player as they watch eagerly to see what will happen next. The perfect example of this was the part of the game where Aerith is killed. The area leading to the cutscene is triggered is a set of jumping platforms that keep Aerith in sight of the player. This invokes the emotions of the player who, already excited and emotional to be so close to meeting Aerith again, is forced to slow down. Then within the cutscene the death of Aerith is drawn out, which really drives home the gravity of what just occurred.

In conclusion, games have been emotional quite some time it is only that people haven’t given the medium a chance to stire their emotions and spark their imagination.  

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNgcATFUyr0