Comments on: Confessions of a Crybaby(And His Interview With Charles Cecil)

By: ameratsu - StartTags.com

ameratsu - StartTags.com — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:14:54 +0000

[...] O, Ameratsu and Chidori…. I'm just sayin Sasukes still pretty crazy. 123. KakashiLuver says: …Confessions of a Crybaby(And His Interview With Charles Cecil …This is a piece that was previously published in The Escapist. It's a favourite of mine. Not only [...]

By: darkmage0707077

darkmage0707077 — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:43:10 +0000

I agree with the above sentements, but I’d like to expand “crying” to “being emotional”. As such – and to “come out of my emotional closet” – I’ll give a few examples of times I’ve connected emotionally with a game (I felt similarly to said scene in BS3 above, btw, and would like to add that I started laughing out loud to jokes made after it happened. And to ones made previously when I replayed. So there’s truth to that):

Name: Chrono Trigger (it was around 1996 when I played)

(WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS)
Scene: Schala’s dialogoue Chrono’s sacrifice to Lavos in 10000AD, remembering JUST THEN his brother’s warning “One of you will shortly perish…”, and having it hit home that a main character in my game JUST DIED.
Reaction: Utter shock, amazement and bewilderment to the point that I could do nothing but stare blankly at the screen for several minutes with my mouth hanging open.
(SPOILERS OVER)

Name: Chrono Cross (near when it came out)

(WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS)
Scene: The Party have just gone through the time portal to “the future destroyed” and have found the wrecked Lenee bell. Chrono and co. come out and start blaming the party for it.
Reaction: Nearly destroyed my controler in horror and rage when I threw it to the ground screaming “Nooooo! F%#* you, you screwed it all up!” (actual quote). I screamed it so loudly that my mother (was at my parents’ house at the time) heard me through our sound-proof basement and came to see what was wrong.
(SPOILERS OVER)

Name: Legend of Mana (around when it came out; can you tell I like RPGs yet)

(WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS)
Scene: (1) Bejeweled City, first entrance, music starts playing…(2) End of Bejeweled City, entire Heroic Sacrifice/Ressurection.
Reaction: (1) Uncontrolled tears. Had to take a break from the game to collect myself. (2) Utter devistation when I hear that their race is doomed, acceptance when hero turns to stone, utter ELATION when he comes back home to the kids.
(SPOILERS OVER)

Name: F.E.A.R. (Year it came out)

(WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS)
Scene: After a truly mind-bending scene, spotted an enemy in the far distance; it hasn’t seen me yet.
Reaction: Terror so great that I had what I call a “true fear response”: my whole body went into auto-self preservation mode and shut itself down to prevent me from moving. I could not even twitch my finger for fear the monsters would “spot me”. Took everything I had to press down on the keys, only to discover it was an illusion.
(SPOILERS OVER)

Name: Myst (1997)

(WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS)
Scene: Opening the green book and seeing Atrius for the first time.
Reaction: Was so surprised that when he said “Who the devil are you??”, said “Who the hell are YOU?!” right back at the screen (had to restore to hear the dialogoue I missed)! Highly embarasing, considering my mother was watching me play at the time, but though she berated me for cursing, she later admitted “If you hadn’t, I would have said it.”.
(SPOILERS OVER)

Game: QFG2 Remake (When it came out)

(WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS)
Scene: (1) Difficulty setting maxed out, just beat a ghoul for the first time ever (no toughened leather boots). (2) Finding option to mount said ghoul’s head at Adventurer’s guild.
Reaction: (1) Pumped fists in the air, scream of “YES! Wohoo!” to the heavens, and eager looting of said body for hard-won treasure. Confusion – and some guilty pleasure – at finding I can remove its head. (2) EXTREME satisfaction at selecting this option, and feeling quite heroic while I stared at the now-prominently-displayed head on the wall. Actual pride while Uhura complemented me on beating the thing.
(YOU KNOW THE DRILL BY NOW)

Game: Live a Life (2006; translated version through emulator)

(WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS)
Scene: Just after the princess kills herself in Maou’s chapter, and the he decides “if they’re going to treat me like a demon, then I will become the demon they fear!”
Reaction: Extreme evil satisfaction and joy, actual shouts of “Yes! Yes, D^#% it, this is perfect!” Eagerness at playing his level after he’d gone evil.
(AND THAT’S IT)

There are more, but I’ll stop there. And I don’t think it needs to be said that I enjoyed every game there and count each as one of the best games I’ve every played in my life. Just thinking about those games as I write this mad me feel chills of remembered emotions…

I have spotted these and similiar responses in friends who I introduce these and other games to. EVERY TIME they have one – even for those who don’t usually play games, and one who actively *hated* them – they thereafter ask constantly to play said games, speak highly of them at all times, and usually get more interested in gaming afterwards.

I have a theory on this that I could post here…but I suspect I’m nearing my limit, so I’ll just say that I now have a near-guaranteed set of criteria for correctly determining if ANY of my friends will like a game that I play and like. And it’s been really satisfying for any number of reasons.

By: Jovan

Jovan — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:47:38 +0000

Ending of Silent Hill 2 almost brought me to tears, it was really sad and tragic(spoilers, obviously). While your playing the game, you don’t get to know much of Marry. Instead you just see some sick, perverse, distorted sexual images from James’s mind, and meat Maria, who is a slutty version of Marry, and in the end, when you find the letter she had on her body, you see just how tragic her life really was. Suffering with this sickness for so much time, only to be suffocated with a pillow by her husband, even thought he kinda had good attentions(well, there is a reason why euthanasia is a taboo topic). But at the end of the letter she says “You mad me happy”. Yeah, such an awesome game. Voice acting was really good too, if the letter had a couple of more lines there would be tears all over my keyboard. :)

By: Team Beneath A Steel Sky Reuintes | It burns when I PVP! | MMORPGs

Team Beneath A Steel Sky Reuintes | It burns when I PVP! | MMORPGs — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:35:29 +0000

[...] Confessions of a Crybaby(And His Interview With Charles Cecil) [...]

By: Having A Good Cry | Design Website

Having A Good Cry | Design Website — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:56:48 +0000

[...] my own fault. I’ve written quite openly about it in the past. I brought it upon myself. But thinking back, I can only think of two occasions when a [...]

By: Rock, Paper, Shotgun: one size too tight » Having A Good Cry

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: one size too tight » Having A Good Cry — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:01:09 +0000

[...] my own fault. I’ve written quite openly about it in the past. I brought it upon myself. But thinking back, I can only think of two occasions when a [...]

By: RightSaidFernt

RightSaidFernt — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:09:12 +0000

My growing hat collection – an array of assorted hats. For all occasions, gardening, casual wear, and even for those times when my Sweetie is ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ in our ancient 1984 Cadillac the size of a boat with something like 400 horsepower – inherited from my mother – and it still is roadworthy, oh and doesn’t use any more gas mph than our other vehicle. One day Sweetie drove me over the Megler Bridge to Astoria, and I was wearing a hat I’d bought in Hawaii when visiting daughter there for her graduation. I commented that I felt like I was being chaueffered in this big car – and said I feel like ‘Driving Miss Daisy’. That became one of those jokes between us.

By: Gylfi

Gylfi — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:51:14 +0000

Ooh I love crying in games, it’s not sadness ofc, it’s overwhelming emotions. I cried at the befuddling beauty and candor of Guybrush lonely wandering through a starry quiet caribbean night at Scabb.

And I cried when the kushans came back from the hyperdrive test and found their exile planet burnt to a cinder, staring silent as a lamb, and Agnus Dei starts. And then I always weep when i listen to “Yes – Homeworld” when He sings : “it’s what keeps us alive, our home is our world, our life”.

I believe it’s not just the story, the plot, or the skilled writing that should have us feel unable to contain our emotions, otherwise what’s the advantage of the great tool of interaction? It’s from this, tool, that lets us participate actively of a character’s dilemmas or experiences, that are to originate our empathy.

And it’s this that will sanctionate videogames’ supremacy as a cultural and human explotation means among films and books, and it will donate videogames the shining future that awaits it and us videogamers the privilege to experience it first before millions of others in the future millennia will go and wonder : “what were those old pioneers’ emotions? Who knows….”

By: Masked Dave

Masked Dave — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:27:19 +0000

I cry at films all the time, just the other day I cried at Casablanca, (not at the ending, but the fantastic scene in the bar where the French sing some French song and drown out the German’s, its the incredible passion of these people, these lost, amoral, bottom feeders for the most part, this incredible passion to live free).

But the only time I’ve welled up in games is during Okami. (Spoilers, mmkay?) The scene where Issun leaves Ameratsu is heart breaking, but the bit that really got me is later on, when you see he’s been going around, telling everyone about you, getting everyone to believe, that he’s fulfilled his destiny and saved you, that you win because of him and his friendship and devotion rather than your own skill.

The good ending of BioShock personally didn’t do much for me, it felt a bit cliche really, although it was nice I guess. But I got a huge warm feeling inside whenever I saved a Little Sister (which I naturally did every time) and she thanked me.

I want more games to have that Casablanca affect on me though, to really just feel the character’s emotions to the point it overwhelms me.

By: Rock, Paper, Shotgun - the PC gaming site

Rock, Paper, Shotgun - the PC gaming site — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:49:43 +0000

[...] Walker’s easily prone to tears, my own emotional foible is being governed by extreme worry. Paranoia, even. This may be evident by [...]

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:28:04 +0000

I laughed at Snake’s demise pretty much every time, but did well up a bit at the “Good” end of Bioshock. Hell, I welled up a bit in bloody World of Conflict yesterday.

By: Acosta

Acosta — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:42:48 +0000

I love Charles Cecil, my first interview with a member of the industry was with him (in a presentation of The Sleeping Dragon). Is very hard but very rewarding when you do a game that makes the player care of the characters, wish more games had that capacity.

But I disagree about Metal Gear Solid, of course I didn´t feel anything with the “snakeeeeee”, but there are few moments that are really moving from the first one: (SPOILERS)

When you fight Sniper Wolf, and Meryl is hit, I felt moved about it, she was there, injured, maybe death, but I couldn´t approach her because would be shot if I tried. Or the moment I kill Sniper Wolf (maybe I felt moved at that moment for the music).