First off, who ever says video games aren’t as emotional as Movies is playing the wrong selection of video games. Overall I am enjoying this book, as its sections feel like episodes of “EXTRA CREDITS,” a short analytical video game show which first appeared on the Escapist Magazine website, but now runs on Penny Arcade.
It’s all too true that a game that is able to invoke strong emotional attachment will allow players to perceive time a different rate. “Time flies when you’re having fun.” At the same time, like a gambling addiction, frustration can lead to over playing. Anyone who grinds in MMORPGs for raids or played ranked modes in multiplayer can attest to that.
For most multiplayer games, professional and average players alike, will have their own favorites, sometimes called “mains,” which gives a proper agency. Either the character has a unique backstory akin to the players’ desire, or their role and abilities fit the personality type. There are other images and videos around the internet that judge people’s daily personalty based on their main, and sometimes they are spot stereotypes to that demographic of players.
Along with the topic of NPCs, every game has its fan favorite, whether it’s Solaire the “Sun Bro,” or Sans the wise cracking comic skeleton. The games, these characters are from, may be instantly recognizable to folks who haven’t played it, simply because the fans on the internet give off their strong emotional attachment in art and media. Recently, I actually had a conversation with an ‘associate’ about optional play options related to to NPCs. In a game where killing was not necessary to complete objectives, but given as a choice, the person in question said that they were unable to bring themselves to kill the NPCs. In my opinion, I said I would let as many of the enemies live, until there’s that one who either hurts my companion NPC or just pulls a random fluke to mess up my flow otherwise. The change in mood comes from what feels like the enemy directly attacking my style of play. ^As if the games are so designed to evoke appropriate reaction from the player, some would call emotion.^