Emotional Gaming Experiences

Sometimes I feel like I can count them on one hand.

By emotional, I mean cry. And in a sad way. Not in a I’m-so-frustrated-that-I-want-to-hurl-the-keyboard-out-the-window way.

As far as I can tell, few games be they console or PC, have the ability to have the player have a strong emotional investment in the characters and story he is playing in. There are a few notables such as the oftenmentioned Final Fantasy VII, but these exceptions are few and far in between.

So what could be the reasons for this?

1) Poorly written story

This one is a fair no-brainer. Most games have stories that read like a cheap b-movie. Check that. More like a really cheap tv movie. Characters are one-dimensional, plot is often as processed as a McDonald’s hamburger, and the dialogue sounds like something a grade schooler wrote.

Many would argue that a good story is not needed in a game. Because, y’know, it’s a game! Go read a book if you want a story! L2P RP NUBTARD!!11!!1!1! LOLZ1

It certainly doesn’t help either that a story is not usually even concieved of until the code for the game itself is mostly done. As far as I can tell, this is SOP for most developers.

2) “Only certain genres need it”

I call bullhockey on this one. While a good story is traditionally associated with adventure games and RPGs, there is no reason why other genres could benefit from them (except maybe sports games, but who knows?). For example, the story to Half-Life 2 only helped the overall immersion and did not detract from anything.

3) Boys and Men mainly play and make games

Everyone knows that men are soulless, emotionless automatons that love keeping their feelings locked up! All they like is violence and shooting people in the head and f******* the corpse! Okay, I jest. What they actually prefer to do is skullf******** the corpse.

4) Games are a form of media that is more interactive. The developer does not have the kind of control the artist\novelist has\needs in creating atmosphere.

Another bullhockey reason. Though it would certainly help if developers would stop thinking that it would necessarily help if they did hire a novelist or screenwriter to improve the story. Just like a book doesn’t port well to a movie, the same issues apply in trying to transmogrify other forms of media into games. It’s hard for people who don’t play\make games to really understand this. Empirically as well, novelist on story does not necessarily equal success. Two words: Advent Rising.

Really, I do not see the reason why stories in games should have such a low priority. Stories have a universal appeal that transcend culture and time. The gaming experience can only be enhanced by placing more focus on this overlooked aspect of games.

Selling Newspapers for College (o rly?)

EDIT: I just remembered something interesting. It was $15 for a trial to the Oakland Tribune and $10 for the SF Chronicle. I however declined to sign up for the SF Chronicle. This was before I realized that he had handed me a form to sign up for said newspaper. But as I moved to throw away said form, he asked to keep it. When I asked why, he said that he had already bought said subscription (I’m a little hazy on the exact wording here) and that he needed the points for the college money. He instructed me to fill in the box that I had paid him in cash. All he asked was that I give him the form. I wouldn’t have to give him any money. I’m still trying to work that one out in my head.

Door bell rang today and I opened to be greeted by a teenager with a clipboard. Though he was clearly a minority of some sort and spoke with a slight accent, this did not stop him from unleashing a sales pitch at a speed that would do an auctioneer proud.

He spoke of college and the need to pay for his tuition. Proferring the clipboard for my inspection, he claimed that he needed sell newspaper subscriptions for “points” and would in return, gain $500 for college if he managed to reach 500 points. I could cancel the subscription at any point and time and recieve my money back, but he claimed that should I cancel the subscription trial before a certain amount of time, he would not get his points. And no points meant no college money.

To be honest, his pity plea touched me. I do value education highly, and so I respect people for trying to overcome adversity to attain it. Yet, I found myself suspicious. Something just did not feel right about the entire pitch. Perhaps it was because he was pushing the sale especially hard. Or perhaps it was because I didn’t like the feel of his eyes or the overly “pity me” line. But pushing my intuition aside for a moment, here is what I found strange in a more concrete fashion:

1) No paperwork detailing the exact details of said program

2) No website to find said program

In the end, I still have him part of what he asked for ($15 instead of the full $25), but mainly out of curiousity then any real belief that the money would actually be used for what he claimed. I did some searching on Google for several minutes and came up with a piece that confirms my suspicions and opens some new questions:

Soliciting Newspaper Sales with Pity Pleas? -

“California Newspaper Sales & Marketing, the largest contractor hired by both the Chronicle and Mercury News to sell subscriptions, and a major contractor responsible for the Stanford area, says that they do not look for any particular profile when hiring these students, as long as the students are doing well in school. Most of the students, they say, have a stable family life and a potential future — as long as they can obtain the money to pay for school.

…

That claim is anything but the truth. In reality, there is no guarantee the money the students earn will go towards a college education. The students do not receive scholarships; they receive money that can be spent on anything — not just a college education. The students are paid by check on a regular basis, just like any other part-time job. If they are older than 18, they receive the check directly. Otherwise, the check goes to their parents.”

This automatically raises two questions in my mind:

1) How widespread is this practice? Does this occur in other states? (My guess is yes)

2) How much money are these students actually making?

Final Thought:  Newspapers must be really hard up these days to have to resort to this kind of advertising.