Photorealistism is needed for emotional connection !
- Thread starter Necuno
- Start date
OmegaFenix
The Legendary Troll Hunter
The quest for photorealism mostly ends in a ditch we call the uncanny valley. Personally only well written characters and an engaging plot can form emotional connection.
Isengard
No Hobbits Allowed
Definitely not. The two games that had the most emotional impact on me (Shadow of the Colossus and Journey) were the near polar opposite of photorealism.
Games certainly don't need to look like real life for you to get emotionally invested in them.
@Omega, I would have to disagree on your point about well written character or engaging plot as being necessary for emotional connection. The two games I mentioned above had very little to none of those things but instead used simple devices to achieve something that I have yet to get from a heavily story driven or character driven game.
Games certainly don't need to look like real life for you to get emotionally invested in them.
@Omega, I would have to disagree on your point about well written character or engaging plot as being necessary for emotional connection. The two games I mentioned above had very little to none of those things but instead used simple devices to achieve something that I have yet to get from a heavily story driven or character driven game.
OmegaFenix
The Legendary Troll Hunter
I'll check them out, actually have SoC HD at home just never got around to trying it out & saw Journey on Extracredits and have been meaning to get it. Though technically Journey is a strong character game since through the journey you pretty much follow Joseph Mampbell's Hero's Journey in the Hero with a Thousand Faces, which is pretty much the template for every character driven story From Star Wars, Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter or Hunger Games, step by step. I am actually pretty sure Shadow of the Colossus also follows this pattern which, in my opinion, turns it into a character driver game and from the emotion it invokes I would say it is well written.
Here are the links to those Extra Creditz Episodes I mentioned: Part 1 & Part 2
There is also a piece on Destructoid that discusses The Hero's Journey & actually references SoC and several other games. Linky
Isengard
No Hobbits Allowed
Here's the thing though, SoC and Journey both share this trait. Both games have almost no dialogue, text or spoken exposition (Journey has zero dialogue).
The story in those games are mostly relayed through visual and audio cues as well as the actions that you the player takes. The gameplay along with those afore mentioned factors are what combine in telling your story.
The most astonishing aspect of these games is how nothing is ever really explained to you, you piece things together as you play and the story - your story feels more personal as a result of that.
Just an example is the emotional attachment I felt for the horse Agro in SoC, a natural attachment that grew over time without me even realising it, to a character that was not voiced nor had any form of back-story.
I definitely recommend giving those two games a try, SoC especially, it's a very unique experience.
OmegaFenix
The Legendary Troll Hunter
I think you misunderstand what I mean by well written, The best stories, in games, are not conveyed through text or even speech, the world, art direction etc all can often tell the story better than dialogue or written text. Think about Rapture in BioShock etc.
I will definitely give them a try.
Graal
New member
One of the most emotional games I've ever played, To The Moon, had graphics that looked like this;
I've never cried so hard in a game.
I've never cried so hard in a game.
pippa81
New member
One of the most emotional games I've ever played, To The Moon, had graphics that looked like this;
I've never cried so hard in a game.
I was just going to ask if anyone had cried from a game. I will definitely give this a try
Oh, and I would have married Abe I was so in love with him.
