Emotional connections in video games

[NathanH]

Jacob always made me sympathize with people who are sexually harassed at work. Seriously, Femshep is all over him.

He likes it really.

I don't think I ever connect with fictional characters. They're just always too far away from being people. Not to say I don't care about what happens to them in a story, of course.

[dspimoni]

I don't think I ever connect with fictional characters. They're just always too far away from being people. Not to say I don't care about what happens to them in a story, of course.

I had always figured that you take out what you put in with fictional characters, to evoke a memory or a feeling that is close to one's heart, like a beautiful painting or song.

[Nalano]

I had always figured that you take out what you put in with fictional characters, to evoke a memory or a feeling that is close to one's heart, like a beautiful painting or song.

Pretty much. Dolls are popular because people put their emotions into dolls, not because dolls are particularly lifelike.

[gwathdring]

Bioware is pretty good at getting that kind of reaction out of me thanks to their emphasis on party members. My first (Darkside) playthrough of KoTOR turned heartbreaking when I had to kill Joli Bendo, and the end of Dragon Age II was agonizing as characters I had grown attached to did terrible things (Anders) or couldn't bend enough to stay with me (Fenris, Sebastien).

Not a PC title, but the end to Red Dead Redemption made me cry. I've heard a lot of people say that the ending to RDR is bad, but I thought it was the only real way it could end, based on what I could glean of John's past. Still very affecting, though.

My Dragon Age: Origins ending went completely to shit because of surprises I didn't expect. I just did what I thought was best at the time ... but friends ended up dead or far away. Love went unfulfilled for reasons of practicality. And Aldric, the Grey Warden sat on a bloody throne with the Archdemon gone, and a long, productive, unwanted rule ahead of him. I then undermined some of that by trying for my personal version of a "good" ending ... but it's the bad one I got my first go-round that really sticks with me and means something. Not because it was more tragic for me, but because I experienced more organic emotional reactions to it instead of carefully editing it from the emotional safety of the meta-game. I imagine I would have loved it even more if my "happy" ending had happened organically. :P

I cared a heck of a lot about those characters, and that kept me going long after I was sick of the grinding.

[duff]

Mass Effect and Walking Dead made me consider who I was and what I am.

This.

Walking Dead is amazing at creating realistic characters. It's also amazing at creating an environment where the player makes connections with these characters. The final episode just came out, so anyone who considers themselves a fan of RPG, or story and character games, really ought to check it out.

Mass Effect on the other hand is a bit clumsier when it deals with it's characters. But one thing I especially liked, and made me think, was Shepard's relationship with EDI in Mass Effect 3. I felt like such a bastard after I initially told her that her existence was to essentially do what humans told her to do, but then changed my mind and realised that she was alive as much as Shepard was.