Chris

Idle News Podblast - 03/09/09: Countdown to Tears

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Yep, Passage and I-don't-remember-the-title-but-it's-a-game-where-you-play-with-a-kid-and-a-ball-and-fetch-ice-blocks are pretty much the same, but they are both kind of the demonstration of why games shouldn't be 3D or whatnot like Jonathan Blow and some others (asses might I add, this article is hilarious to me as much as this one is btw).

The point is, when you remove everything else, you leave way for interpretation of game mechanics, when you make a short game, that has practically no gameplay elements (1, 2, 3, 4 arrows plus the girl and the boxes, not much interaction so to speak) no story told or no...thing really then yes, you basically let everyone take anything out of your game.

1)Nothing happens in the game but you, you are the only thing happening and the one NPC is practically all you have to care about, so yep, you focus on her and it creates empathy.

2)The game is not explained, the whole thing is "you have to figure it out on your own" so it just throws interpretability in your face

3)No point is exposed, and so you just HAVE to create your own.

So you would then create another video game that has no story whatsoever and has to be kind of easy because you must not explain it, with not much happening in it, just you interacting with the world.

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In conclusion: I have said too much and am digging myself into a pit of my own self-annoyance.

No, you often say things and do not add shit and fuck and cunt and rape around them that is pretty interesting, even in the podcast (which is the lowest point of human discourse ability you would agree) you often pull some awesome shit out of your ass...

In conclusion: you're awesome !

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This podblast itself made me cry.

I think that alone says something. ;(

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I'm not ashamed to admit I actually shed a tear at end of SoTC, though in my defense I was pretty stoned at the time.

But just the way that game engages the player emotionally overall is pretty brilliant, from the slow-burn structure of the gameplay up to the scene where Argo goes over the cliff that thrusts you into the final battle, and then the futility of playing out the ending scene, all leads up to a big emotional release from the player when it finally ends. I think there are pretty legitimate reasons why alot of people always reference Ico & SoTC when discussing emotions in gaming, they are just so sincere in the stories they present, without trivializing or pandering the content in any way. Does that make sense?

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When I was 9 years old and had just landed the final blow on Ganon at the end of Ocarina of Time after hours of trying, my younger sister unplugged the Nintendo 64. Not sure if I cried or not, but devastated? Hell yes.

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I'm not ashamed to admit I actually shed a tear at end of SoTC, though in my defense I was pretty stoned at the time.

But just the way that game engages the player emotionally overall is pretty brilliant, from the slow-burn structure of the gameplay up to the scene where Argo goes over the cliff that thrusts you into the final battle, and then the futility of playing out the ending scene, all leads up to a big emotional release from the player when it finally ends. I think there are pretty legitimate reasons why alot of people always reference Ico & SoTC when discussing emotions in gaming, they are just so sincere in the stories they present, without trivializing or pandering the content in any way. Does that make sense?

I feel you make a lot of sense, though I am personality surprised you beat the game stoned. I, a man who doesn't illicit substance, spent 4 hours on the last boss. Mainly dealing with his hands of doom. I was intensely touched when I was struggling to reach the girl. I mean I was bashing intensely. It took me a minute to realize that it was worthless when I was hanging over the void. Though I feel that the game invokes a sense of emotional response, in the sense of guilt when killing, because most of the bosses really are just frollicking in the woods and you were basically Gordon Freedman's protege and killing innocent creatures without any sense of reason outside of an ominous voice telling you. Though I would say, that one boss who *spoiler* way to get to him was by making him go over a guyser. Had me have a sociopathic moment of going "aww" as he tried to balance himself and then my racing to attack him.

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If Interactive Fiction counts, the closest I came to tears was playing Photopia.

I feel you make a lot of sense, though I am personality surprised you beat the game stoned.

Yeah. Seriously. Sayonara skill.

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True story about emotional game experiences, tears and what not; it may not fit the spirit of this thread, but I'm going to post it anyways.

So a couple of years back, one of my closest friends was diagnosed with leukemia. He was only 19, so it came as quite a shock. His prognosis in the beginning was generally positive, but almost a year to the day later he passed away. After his funeral, a group of us decided the best way to honor his memory would be to hang out, drink, smoke, reminisce, and play games for 24 straight hours. So we did just that.

A week later we piled into his old room. Nothing had been moved. His enormous collection of games sat undisturbed, and his PS2 and 360 were still connected... Someone brought a full Rockband setup, and what was intended to be a couple hours of plastic guitar shenanigans quickly turned into eight hours of ridiculousness. After the fatigue of rocking out set it, we decided to play something else... Shadow of the Colossus. It was his favorite game after all, it was only fitting.

So we played and played. We just took turns, passing the controller when we died. Although several of us had purchased SotC, none of us had made it past the first two colossi. As you can imagine, it took a lot of trial and error. There was a lot of frustration, and a lot of laughter as we just tried whatever the fuck we could think of to take down the massive beasts. The first few went by pretty quick, but as the night wore on things got pretty crazy. But one after another they fell until we finally reached that climactic ending.

When it was over there was a weird mix of emotion in the room. The chain smoking had left a thick fog that burned my eyes, the lack of sleep left me delirious, and the marathon of gaming had left us all mentally drained. And all at once, as then ending cinematic rolled, the gravity of the situation sank in; our friend was really gone for good, and we were never going to see him again...

I'm not ashamed to admit that tears were shed. I swear we stared at the screen in silence for a good ten minutes after the ending had played. There was nothing left... Finally someone spoke up; we were already passed our 24 hour mark. Somehow we had made it 24 straight hours playing only two games! We exchanged a few words, braved the blinding morning sun and went our separate ways...

It was the most intense feeling, and I'm having trouble putting it into words. Sure, coming to grips with the loss of a friend played a big part, but the theme and general mood of Shadow of Colossus fit so well... To be honest I can't even clearly remember the ending in detail. I just remember the feeling of loss that carried through the entire game, and how well it fit the situation.

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It was the most intense feeling, and I'm having trouble putting it into words. Sure, coming to grips with the loss of a friend played a big part, but the theme and general mood of Shadow of Colossus fit so well... To be honest I can't even clearly remember the ending in detail. I just remember the feeling of loss that carried through the entire game, and how well it fit the situation.

Great story. But yea, it does show just how ridiculous that whole exchange was. No one has ever created something so great that everyone weeps at the sight of it, art is in a large part made by what you bring into it. That fact is why the design of Ueda's games is so effective, they are so simple that people can pile up their feelings on top of them. New technology isn't going to make things simpler by any means, so if you want to emotionally connect with gamers adding pixels isn't the be all end all. Speilberg should know this, Schindler's List was made all the more effecting by the decision to film it in black and white.

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I got really misty-eyed on a couple occasions in Lost Odyssey, but they were both in those short stories written by that famous Japanese author, so I don't think that really helps gaming's cause.

Also, technically this landmark was passed over two decades ago.

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Did all of our irony detectors get turned off somehow?

Maybe yours?

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True story about emotional game experiences, tears and what not; it may not fit the spirit of this thread, but I'm going to post it anyways.

So a couple of years back, one of my closest friends was diagnosed with leukemia. He was only 19, so it came as quite a shock. His prognosis in the beginning was generally positive, but almost a year to the day later he passed away. After his funeral, a group of us decided the best way to honor his memory would be to hang out, drink, smoke, reminisce, and play games for 24 straight hours. So we did just that.

A week later we piled into his old room. Nothing had been moved. His enormous collection of games sat undisturbed, and his PS2 and 360 were still connected... Someone brought a full Rockband setup, and what was intended to be a couple hours of plastic guitar shenanigans quickly turned into eight hours of ridiculousness. After the fatigue of rocking out set it, we decided to play something else... Shadow of the Colossus. It was his favorite game after all, it was only fitting.

So we played and played. We just took turns, passing the controller when we died. Although several of us had purchased SotC, none of us had made it past the first two colossi. As you can imagine, it took a lot of trial and error. There was a lot of frustration, and a lot of laughter as we just tried whatever the fuck we could think of to take down the massive beasts. The first few went by pretty quick, but as the night wore on things got pretty crazy. But one after another they fell until we finally reached that climactic ending.

When it was over there was a weird mix of emotion in the room. The chain smoking had left a thick fog that burned my eyes, the lack of sleep left me delirious, and the marathon of gaming had left us all mentally drained. And all at once, as then ending cinematic rolled, the gravity of the situation sank in; our friend was really gone for good, and we were never going to see him again...

I'm not ashamed to admit that tears were shed. I swear we stared at the screen in silence for a good ten minutes after the ending had played. There was nothing left... Finally someone spoke up; we were already passed our 24 hour mark. Somehow we had made it 24 straight hours playing only two games! We exchanged a few words, braved the blinding morning sun and went our separate ways...

It was the most intense feeling, and I'm having trouble putting it into words. Sure, coming to grips with the loss of a friend played a big part, but the theme and general mood of Shadow of Colossus fit so well... To be honest I can't even clearly remember the ending in detail. I just remember the feeling of loss that carried through the entire game, and how well it fit the situation.

Dude, this post nearly made me cry. Holy shit :\

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I have heard that Warren Spector guaranteed tears will be delivered in Epic Mickey. Shall we restart the countdown?

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I have heard that Warren Spector guaranteed tears will be delivered in Epic Mickey. Shall we restart the countdown?

source pls.

but yes.

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Any chance of putting the mp3s of the live songs available for separate download?

Edit: Ups, wrong thread.

Edited by Sleepdance

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I have to fess up.

I cried during Mass Effect 2.

Now, admittedly, Mass Effect 2 was in a cutscene and I was in another room having slammed my toe into a door frame while careening through the house (very, very low pain tolerance), but I was crying! And Mass Effect 2 was playing.

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source pls.

but yes.

My source is the GWJ podcast. I thought it was in the Warren Spector keynote at PAX, but I don't feel like watching 58 minutes of that.

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Any chance of putting the mp3s of the live songs available for separate download?

Could just cut them out of the podcast.

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My source is the GWJ podcast. I thought it was in the Warren Spector keynote at PAX, but I don't feel like watching 58 minutes of that.

Having been at the keynote, it wasn't there. I believe it was during the round-table that the GWJ guys were talking about. I don't know if there's a transcription of that anywhere. Also, in the PAX live show, that was me in the room saying that Dance Central was actually a kinect experience worth playing. Takin' it to the airwaves!

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The claim was indeed that Spector guaranteed tears. However, this is still second hand from the GWJ guys.

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