I think a big part of grasping the player is using his role-character. The character he/she has become in-game. If someone dies, and the main character yells profanity, it''s not going to be a big deal.

If instead, the main character falls to his knees, screaming and crying, pounding the ground in rage, it would have a much bigger pull to it. The player reflects with his main character, and the feelings bounce back and forth. The bigger and stronger and more prideful the main character is, the more of the audience will be made into pure streaming sissies.

I almost cried when Final Fantasy Tactics was over...not due to the story, but just because I loved that game.

When you find yourself in the company of a halfling and an ill-tempered Dragon, remember, you do not have to outrun the Dragon...

Black and White made me cry, mainly because I spent so much money on it.

I was very caught up in FFX ... I really felt like I knew the characters.

Was very sad when Tidus had to kill his father.

And when Yuna fell through tidus as he was vanishing... wow ... yeah ... very emotional.

quote:

---

Original post by Alf_Fly

quote:

---

Original post by boolean
Maybe if the player was so single minded in killing the ''last boss'' (as all games are) that his girlfriend was shot and killed while he was out of town and didnt even know. I know I would be thinking ''shit...I was tottaly focused on brining down Mr. last boss...I didnt even think about her....'', and I would maybe feel guilty.

---

Conker''s Bad Fur Day.

The only game that''s made me cry also happens to be my favourite game. It''s a freeware IF game called Photopia. There''s some argument that it''s not actually a game at all, since it simulates choice rather than actually offering you choices, but that''s a necessary evil since the whole thing is an excercise in precisely paced storytelling. To discuss the plot at all would rob it of it''s power, and while not everyone will appreciate it, I would recommend that people try it. Personally, when I finished playing it I felt like I''d been punched in the gut.



[edited by - Alf_Fly on April 15, 2004 5:51:27 PM]

---

DUDE...I played that Photopia game, and I THOUGHT about crying, but since the first action I took in the game was "KILL ROB" (watched KILL BILL almost 6 times since I bought it a day and a half ago), that was kinda out the window...I also couldn''t cry because I didn''t understand it. I understand the events, and that they were out of order (the chronological ordering reminded me of that *AWESOME* movie _21 Grams_)...but I don''t understand the way they ended it. There are so many gaps that could''ve been filled! And, because I like the VERY SHORT story so much, I can''t reveal any of it!



***POSSIBLE SPOILER***





***STOP READING IF YOU DON''T WANT THE SPOILER!!***





***I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU GET MAD AT ME FOR SPOILING THIS I''M TAKING YOU OFF MY BUDDYLIST***



Where did Alley''s dreams come from? Were they premonitions of pending events? Did the photopia become her last memory? Did the car lights remind her of it, and keep that on her mind until that big thing happened (100+ km/h)? And...what the hell? Was the bird just a visitor? Was the world where everything she looked at died how Wendy saw the world after Alley''s death? Some kind of trauma? What was with the bird lady? AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO DROP KICKED THAT WOLF?!


Okay, that''s all.

POSSIBLE PHOTOPIA SPOILERS!*****





The ending was the beginning; the beginning was the end. Her dreams emerged from the Photopia she had when she was a child. If you selected to have colors, the circles in the Photopia (the ones changing colors and moving and such) were the origins of the colors and themes.

She is telling the child (Wendy) her dreams and making her the main character.

The main point of the story is to show the life of a brilliant girl, vibrant and full of potentiel, ripped to shreds by the abuse of alcohol and irresponsible adolescents, and, at the same time, offering up an intriguing and perplexing story structure through her dreams, finally to be revealed at the end, the cause of the dreams--Photopia.

PS:
I totally kicked the poor wolf's a$$ too. :\


[edited by - Valkyr on April 16, 2004 10:36:05 PM]

POSSIBLE PHOTOPIA SPOILERS! DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME! JUST GO AND PLAY IT INSTEAD!




NO, REALLY!



I MEAN IT!



Okay.

I didn't understand everything in Photopia. I don't know if the game was heavily laden with metaphor, or if it was simply full of bizarre dreams for the sake of weirdnessand appearing to offer the player choices. The reason I love Photopia is this: you play through the game and learn about this girl. You see her through the lives of people around her. You see her mother's frantic desire for her daughter's wellbeing. You see her father's desire to teach her about a universe filled with wonder. You see the boy asking her out for the school dance. In that part, the game relies on personal experience; everyone knows what it's like to fear rejection by someone we care about, so when Abby agreed to go out with me (or at least, my avatar) I felt a genuine surge of elation. We see the life and growth of a beautiful, wonderful young girl - and the game tells us that she's beautiful and wonderful, because everyone around her loves her so much, and so, by proxy, we love her too. And then we kill her. Not the bad guys, because there aren't any. And not the game, because Photopia uses the medium of interactive fiction wonderfully. It asks us to make the choices - in fact, in interactive fiction that can ne bo progress whatsoever unless we make choices. And the choices that we make directly result in Alley's death.

That's the realisation that made me cry when I played Photopia. It is a wonderful piece of interactive fiction, and it could ONLY exist as a computer game - there is no other medium that could offer the same experience. On the part of the author, it's a thorough and exact example of using an interactive medium to utterly control a player's emotions. It's pretty much a work of art.

[edited by - Alf_Fly on April 17, 2004 6:32:42 PM]

If you name a game or a movie that could make you cry, I''d be very graceful .
Haven''t cried for years, I think Bambie was the only movie that made me spare some tears. Oh yeah and if you know a game that could thrill me that much I that I''m afraid when the light turns off, I''d be even more graceful. Unfortunately, there seems to exist none. Unreal and Half-Life thrilled me most, but I wasn''t really afraid. Bad thing. Have I lost my emotions?


Indeterminatus

--si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses--

there are only 2 games that really made me cry and both had the death of a playable character involved;

WARNING SPOILERS








the death of Aeris in final fantasy vii (PSX / PC) and the death of "Sprite" in Secret of Mana (SNES)

No, games can''t make you cry ever really I don''t think. All the examples people have given e.g. Max Payne 2 etc. are just in reference to the cut-scenes which are just movies so I hardly see how that counts. The cutscenes in MaxPayne 2 weren''t that emotional anyway, moody at best I''d say.

Only example you might be able to cite is in MMORPGs, Its very possible to cry but thats because its real people involved.