Video Games and Emotions
It's an elusive thing that's becoming more and more common: the video games that really moves you emotionally. This is I think what people usually mean when they speculate about whether or not video games are art. I think video games have a unique way of doing this, not one that is better or worse than when a movie or book sucks you into a moment, but one that is very different. When you spend time actually *being* a character, in a virtual sense, controlling their actions and actually experiencing their triumphs and failures as your own, customizing their look to suit you, you get invested in a way that I wouldn't say is *more* than with other media, but is definitely unique. And when a video game succeeds in investing you in a world and its characters, and then surprising you with a turn of events, it can really wrench you in a way that is rare and all its own.
I've been thinking about this lately because I've been playing Red Dead Redemption, a Rockstar game that has a few such moments. There's one moment about a third of the way through when you (barely) make it to the Mexican shoreline, are given a horse, and are sent galloping off in a foreign land, with no allies, your family being held captive by a corrupt government, to chase after a former friend that you've been sent to bring to justice. You get on the horse and have to ride through the desert for quite a while before reaching your destination, and the most beautiful song starts playing, a song written specifically for the game. It's "Far Away" by José González if you're curious, but watching a YouTube video of the moment is nothing compared to actually experiencing it within the game. It's easily the most beautiful part of the game and I actually felt like crying a little. It so perfectly captures the feeling of the moment as well as evoking the feel of the Old West and the loneliness of the open desert.
PROTIP: if you actually do play the game, make sure you take the horse they give you; don't call your own horse. It's the horse that triggers the song, and if you get off the horse the song will stop, never to return.
Late in the game is another moment that just blew my mind. I won't spoil you, but my wife was just a bit ahead of me in the game and happened to be playing through this scene while I was in the room. I was so shocked and upset by what happened (which is exactly how I was supposed to feel) that I've been unable to return to the game since. I'll just say that Rockstar's got guts, and it goes in a direction that is incredibly fitting to a tale of the Old West.
Portal is a game that has a much lighter, humorous tone, but managed to break my heart all the same. I'm sure everyone's heard by now of the Companion Cube. It's a box that you need to carry with you throughout a particular level in order to help you beat the puzzles. In playtesting, the makers of the game saw that most players didn't get that they were supposed to keep the cube with them, that it was necessary to solve the rest of the level. In order to remedy this problem, the developers put little hearts on the box and had GLaDOS tell you to "take care of it." Somehow, over the course of the level, the game gets you to love this Companion Cube. Even though there are absolutely zero signs of sentience from the thing, GLaDOS's commentary keeps hinting that it's really alive. Then, at the end of the level, triumphant in your success,
GLaDOS informs you that the Companion Cube cannot go on with you. Not only that, but she instructs you to incinerate it yourself. I was completely distraught. I hung around in that room for at least 5 or 6 minutes, trying to find a way to save the Companion Cube before I finally realized I couldn't do it, gave in, gritted my teeth, and sadly incinerated my friend. GLaDOS informed me that that was the least amount of time anyone had ever waited before incinerating their cube. Lies! It was with a heavy heart that I slowly moved on to the next level. This more than anything served to underscore what a horrible, sadistic bitch GLaDOS is, and she mocks you later in the game for killing "him." It's brilliant character development. And I am amazed at how in a mere 15 minutes or so the designers made me dearly love an inanimate object. This funny/sad YouTube video does a pretty good job of describing the emotional experience.
In Portal 2 GLaDOS
presents you with another Companion Cube, only to disintegrate it the second you try and touch it. TWICE. It's effective emotional torture.
Anyway, it's really incredible when a game manages to get at you like that, and it's something that I hope to see further developed in the future. I hope designers will be bolder in taking risks at pissing us off in order to wrench our hearts. Because that's when video games are unquestioningly art.
I've been thinking about this lately because I've been playing Red Dead Redemption, a Rockstar game that has a few such moments. There's one moment about a third of the way through when you (barely) make it to the Mexican shoreline, are given a horse, and are sent galloping off in a foreign land, with no allies, your family being held captive by a corrupt government, to chase after a former friend that you've been sent to bring to justice. You get on the horse and have to ride through the desert for quite a while before reaching your destination, and the most beautiful song starts playing, a song written specifically for the game. It's "Far Away" by José González if you're curious, but watching a YouTube video of the moment is nothing compared to actually experiencing it within the game. It's easily the most beautiful part of the game and I actually felt like crying a little. It so perfectly captures the feeling of the moment as well as evoking the feel of the Old West and the loneliness of the open desert.
PROTIP: if you actually do play the game, make sure you take the horse they give you; don't call your own horse. It's the horse that triggers the song, and if you get off the horse the song will stop, never to return.
Late in the game is another moment that just blew my mind. I won't spoil you, but my wife was just a bit ahead of me in the game and happened to be playing through this scene while I was in the room. I was so shocked and upset by what happened (which is exactly how I was supposed to feel) that I've been unable to return to the game since. I'll just say that Rockstar's got guts, and it goes in a direction that is incredibly fitting to a tale of the Old West.
Portal is a game that has a much lighter, humorous tone, but managed to break my heart all the same. I'm sure everyone's heard by now of the Companion Cube. It's a box that you need to carry with you throughout a particular level in order to help you beat the puzzles. In playtesting, the makers of the game saw that most players didn't get that they were supposed to keep the cube with them, that it was necessary to solve the rest of the level. In order to remedy this problem, the developers put little hearts on the box and had GLaDOS tell you to "take care of it." Somehow, over the course of the level, the game gets you to love this Companion Cube. Even though there are absolutely zero signs of sentience from the thing, GLaDOS's commentary keeps hinting that it's really alive. Then, at the end of the level, triumphant in your success,
GLaDOS informs you that the Companion Cube cannot go on with you. Not only that, but she instructs you to incinerate it yourself. I was completely distraught. I hung around in that room for at least 5 or 6 minutes, trying to find a way to save the Companion Cube before I finally realized I couldn't do it, gave in, gritted my teeth, and sadly incinerated my friend. GLaDOS informed me that that was the least amount of time anyone had ever waited before incinerating their cube. Lies! It was with a heavy heart that I slowly moved on to the next level. This more than anything served to underscore what a horrible, sadistic bitch GLaDOS is, and she mocks you later in the game for killing "him." It's brilliant character development. And I am amazed at how in a mere 15 minutes or so the designers made me dearly love an inanimate object. This funny/sad YouTube video does a pretty good job of describing the emotional experience.
In Portal 2 GLaDOS
presents you with another Companion Cube, only to disintegrate it the second you try and touch it. TWICE. It's effective emotional torture.
Anyway, it's really incredible when a game manages to get at you like that, and it's something that I hope to see further developed in the future. I hope designers will be bolder in taking risks at pissing us off in order to wrench our hearts. Because that's when video games are unquestioningly art.