Emotional Gameplay Occurences.

Ketchaval · 2001-05-05T03:22:56

What emotions can we invoke via situations that occur in gameplay? It is relatively "easy" to try and create emotional situations via highly orchestrated set pieces and a pre-defined "canned" path through a game. But I believe that it is a more powerful tool to be able to create a wide variety of emotional situations via tactical situations which occur in the game world! (Ie. Via the gameplay itself with a small amount of atmospheric graphics / sound to add to the impact of what has just happened). Ie. Think about racing game, and the adrenaline rush of a near finish.. and the elation of eventually gaining the lead on the last corner. Now you might say that this isn''t the kind of feeling that can be integrated into the more adventure based games that (some) of the Gamedev.net regulars seem to prefer. But think about the other situations that could be used to create emotion... Nethack MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW The other day in a Nethack session the game told me that a Garter Snake had slithered out of my backpack ... with a cry that sounded like "daddy". Thinking about the situation, I was at first worried as an unfriendly Garter snake could be deadly.. then I wondered if a spell had been cast on me to make one come from my backpack.. rereading the message I noticed the cry of "daddy" and realised that it was a baby snake that had hatched from an egg that I had picked up earlier in the game, but not eaten at the time!..this snake had imprinted itself on me (aah! cute!), I then realised that I could use my leash on this baby snake and it would become my pet and follow me around (cool! + succesful implementation of an idea)! END OF SPOLIER So what situations can be made which subtly invoke emotions (in even minor amounts)?