Emotions are perhaps one of he most raw and powerful things to exist in our world. Rage and greed have spawned world wars that have shaped how the world works today. Happiness and joy have created some of the things we enjoy most in our day-to-day lives. Sadness and grief have led to us remembering the fallen, burying the dead, and working for a better tomorrow. Things in our world 99.9% of the time inspire a feeling from us, visible or not, and often those feelings can drive us toward doing certain actions, as well as change our thought process when we do something similar in the future. Regardless of how a person looks at it, emotions are unavoidable, and are everywhere, and video games are no exception. In fact...they're so full of them in so many ways that it's almost unbelievable.
Dive in.
Stephen King's book 11/22/63 starts with a line that has stuck with me since I read it: "I've never been what you call a crying man" (King, 3). Well, I'll tell you now that I am a crying man...okay, being 18 doesn't really make me a man, but I digress. I've found myself to be a very emotional person over the years, and I am not ashamed to admit it. I spend a lot of time considering actions and their outcomes by me, characters that only exist in fantasy, and people who are long gone. Emotions are important to me, and video games have only made them more and more important to me. As I said before, I think the boundary that video games put up for emotions is virtually limitless-they've made us feel every emotion possible, and will continue to do so, as far as I can tell. And it's not just the worlds they've created in the games either-there's also the entire new world they've created right here in our own lives.
I've talked before about how much I love a good story in a game, but that's not exactly what this blog is. I'm just writing down what pops into my head about anything and everything tied with emotions and video games, and why video games are this vast pool of raw goodness. Sure, games can inspire bad emotions at times, but they can also bring out ones that turn our lives around. They can create some of the most wonderful experiences on the planet, and leave us wanting more and more and more. Whatever the case, the first and foremost way that games create emotions within ourselves is the worlds they bring to life.
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YOU CAN'T SAVE AQUA OR VENTUS!
Weird way to get into it, huh? I know, a seven minute trailer isn't something all of you want to see when you click on a blog, but if you have the time, watch it; I feel it's one of the most well constructed trailers ever made (and also, it's way better than it's English counterpart). Birth by Sleep isn't the best Kingdom Hearts game, but I've been thinking about it more recently, and the raw emotion and depth it brings out, just in these seven minutes, is astounding. If you're not going to watch the entire trailer, the part I find the most important is at the 6:22 mark. The dialogue goes as follows (Note: the dialogue I use is the fan translation from the trailer, not that of the English version of the game, since I find this more impactful):
Master Xehanort: You can't save Aqua or Ventus!
Terra: I'll never forgive you, Xehanort!
Master Xehanort: Yes, submit your heart to eternal darkness and rage!
That's still my favorite moment in Birth by Sleep, even before I played the game. This short exchange between Master Xehanort and Terra shows how much Terra has fallen into darkness, and how he realizes how he has been misled into believing the darkness could be controlled. And yet, despite this, he still and always did care for his two best friends, Ventus and Aqua, shown by their own two scenes where they declare how strong the three's friendship is. I don't know about you, but this moment in this game that not many people probably paid attention to is very powerful. I know these characters aren't real, but hearing the emotion in their voices, seeing the looks in their eyes, and the actions they take for one another could really teach some real people a lesson. I also find the original teaser video for Birth by Sleep to be very emotional; in it's 3 minute span, it conveys a sense of hopelessness, as well as hope, with it's final scene.
Magic beds are super emotional. Okay, not really.
Many people associate emotions with crying, or being sad about something. That's not always the case, however. Many games provide us with happy, joyful emotions, and sometimes ones that are so happy we can't help but cry. Playing something like Super Mario Galaxy and just seeing the level live and breathe can put a smile on a person's face, seeing the effort and creativity Nintendo EAD put into the world. Running around on Pi'illo Island in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and seeing all the creative ways AlphaDream incorporated the concept of sleep, pillows, and dreams into the world is so awesome that I chuckle and just feel happy about it.
Characters themselves also play an important role when dealing with emotions. Two of my favorite series, Ace Attorney and Zero Escape, have some of the most wonderful characters ever developed. I know I already mentioned the whole Terra-Aqua-Ventus thing, but characters like Miles Edgeworth and Tenmyouji bring their standards to new heights.One Ace Attorney character who stands out is Quercus Alba, solely because the arrogance he resonates really characterizes him well, and when playing Turnabout Ablaze, I was full of determination to counter his logic about who really killed Manny Coachen and Mask De'Masque II. Other characters like Trucy and Godot have made me feel all kinds of emotions when interacting with them, and the whole dynamic of characters in Zero Escape was an emotional roller coaster. The World Ends with You's partner dynamic also fits this mold, with the interaction between Neku and his partner being wonderfully executed.
Sea-salt ice-cream.
Sometimes, the small moments between characters can also create a lot of emotion. When I titled this blog "Drown Me", I meant to say, "drown me in a sea of emotions". These small moments make up half the water in that ocean, because they just build up and up over time. The small conversations between Sigma and everyone in Zero Escape, and when Roxas, Axel, and Xion were all eating sea-salt ice-cream just add-up, especially when coupled with the big moments. Sure, when say, a character dies, it's sad, but the fact is that if you didn't have those small moments with the character before, that death isn't going to have as much of an impact. It CAN have an impact, and a big one at times, but really-you're more likely to feel emotional if you lose someone you knew for awhile instead of someone you just met.
Finally, there's the other emotions that games can fill us with, that are more with what we do in the game, instead of seeing it play out. Wonder and awe can accompany great set pieces such as Raiden fighting Metal Gear Ray in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and satisfaction comes from getting a chain attack in Xenoblade Chronicles. When we do something like these things in a game, it stimulates our emotions to make us feel powerful, and like we are, well, to use something overused, epic. When I defeated a certain dark lord with a boy wearing green, I was filled with confidence in that "I JUST DID THAT" and "THAT JUST HAPPENED". Successfully coming back in a game of Left 4 Dead 2's Scavenge mode is always uplifting, and putting the final nail in the coffin of an Ace Attorney villain will always be a joy to do.
Friends bring out the best in us.
Y'know what? It's time to move past that stuff. We all know about how wonderful games can be by themselves-but this world, that you're in right now...that's something just as magical as Hyrule, Shadow Moses Island, and Halo. We, gamers, have all been united by a common interest, and we game for a purpose: to have fun. Sure, we dispute a lot, but that only makes us human. The relationships, and the emotions that have come with playing video games, are just as rewarding as those from just playing the games.
Video games have helped people meet who probably never would have otherwise. Because I play video games, I've met somewonderfulpeople, and I hope to continue this trend. I've made friends in my real life and have found I could connect with them solely because we played games. Let me tell you, finding someone who has played Ace Attorney is the best feeling ever, because it made me happy to know that I could have a great conversation with this person about the series, and it made me just...happy, knowing I'm not alone in that realm. We may always talk about how wonderful games are...but really, we should also talk about the wonderful thing games have done for us, as people...well, I mean, that doesn't apply to everyone, of course-but we should recognize how people, like maybe you, reading this, and I, only have conversed in some form, because games brought us together. Our diverse and devoted industry is so great, it can't be overstated. Some gamers (including me) get snarky at times, but really, games have done so much.
The passion and devotion to franchises on the internet really shows how much we all love games-that devotion shows how much emotion games have put into us-we're expressing it. Not everyone may do it, but that doesn't mean that a person isn't as devoted-some people scramble to obtain everything in a game, to see every little bit of it, because they enjoyed it. We just keep going deeper and deeper into everything...and it's so wonderful.
I don't really know what else to say...games are an emotional waterfall. They do all these wonderful things for us, and the connections and relationships they've made us make have changed entire lives. Many people talk about how wonderful the community is here on GIO-well, we, all of us, only met under this one common roof: video games. We were all brought, drawn together, as have others. There would be no Runaway Guys, no Replay, none of these awesome things...without video games. They've made me cry, jump for joy, stay up late talking with friends, and have made me live. Long live gaming. And long live the emotions that come with it.
There also wouldn't be these guys. YOU GO GUYS!