I’ve talked several times in the past about how important story and character are to me in games. It’s just where I focus a lot of my attention, to some extent I’ll overlook genre and gameplay if a game has a compelling narrative and characters that grab me and won’t let go. I guess characters are sort of the point of today’s discussion, specifically the emotion those characters can generate in us.
Compared with the emotions that are stirred in my by older media such as books, films and music games often feel emotionally closed. I honestly can’t think of a situation where a game has actually brought a tear to my eye, whereas I can recall dozens of times that other forms of media have made me well up. Of course compared to other media games are still heavily in their infancy, even the relatively new film industry is nearly 3 times as old gaming; it’s perhaps understandable that they wouldn’t have developed the depth and reach of competing media.
I think part of this is the kinds of stories games tell, and the way they’re told. In general the stories we play paint the protagonist as a hero who must overcome some huge odds to get to whatever their ultimate goal is, whether it be defeat an evil foe or steal some ancient artefact. There’s rarely any kind of background on the character, and when there is it’s frequently some shallow story to make them seem slightly more than a cool piece of moving concept art.
Of course there is one very notable recent exception to this, Heavy Rain. Whilst some may criticise Heavy Rain for the dullness of scenes where you’re at home playing with your kids or taking a shower, these kind of scenes flesh out the characters, making them seem more real. By adding a significant dimension of depth to the character with every-day scenes they make it much easier to connect to them and their motivations, adding a small emotional connection that most games lack.
Of course I may well be wrong, and I’m fully aware that I’m missing out on some games like ICO and Shadow of the Colossus that may grab you almost immediately on an emotional level; sadly I’ve never played them. Do you have any games that really grab you on a raw, emotional level? Or are games still weak in this area?