(Sorry about the photo quality. I don't have the PC version and I wanted to catch the perfect screenshot to go with my article. So I took a picture of my TV screen. Bear with me.)
Regardless if we like it or not, everything affects one way or another. We see an add for a delicious new burger on TV and all of the sudden we feel hungry. We hear rumors that lice has been spread around school and all of the sudden our heads itch.
Like film writers, authors, and song writers, developers try to find ways to affect our emotions and train of thought with their games. We are beginning to see an increase in 'story driven' games where character development goes beyond just giving a summary on a character's backstory. Developers are starting to explore the concept of making us relate to game character just as people have related to characters in novels or films for years. They try to make use care for the characters and feel what they feel, but our emotions can be messed with without a character even being present.
The environments we are in can have just as strong emotional impacts on us as a well spoken speech or a tear-jerker song. Just how many times do we wake up on cold, rainy days feeling groggy and unwilling to get out of bed? How many times have we felt strange bursts of happiness or excitement on the first warm, sunny day after a long winter? How many times have we felt scared or uneasy when walking through a graveyard? While we can't feel the warmth of the sun on our skins when the sun is shining nor can we have that full unearthy experience when running through a demon-filled graveyard in a game, environments can still have an impact.
Sometime ago I talked about how I felt peaceful when playing Oblivion. The music was calming and soothing and then was amplified with the natural sounds of crickets, the wind blowing, and water splashing up on the shore as I stood beside the bay. The game was simply beautiful, too, creating a magical feeling as if you were in a wonderland were stress and fear did not exist. I often found myself taking sometime to just ride my horse through the forest after a hard day just to settle myself down.
Recently, I've been playing Bethesda's newest game, Fallout 3. Without looking at my screen, I could feel the same feeling. After all much like Oblivion, Fallout 3 does have a nice soundtrack and wind sound effects, but then I begin to play and mood shifts...I look around and all I see is a barren wasteland filled with shattered homes, broken hopes, and lost souls. I begin to feel very strange, almost as if a sense of depression washes over me.
The idea of a once lush land and thriving civilizations being destroyed and then seeing the aftermath is disturbing to an extent. You have to look at it from a different point of view though; I suppose to feel this way, you need to look at each building as more than just a location to explore. You need to look at it in the sense that it once was a house that held a family that was just like us. (What if it were your home? What would you do if the world you knew vanished before you, leaving you with nothing but dirt and sand?) Then the addition of ghouls adds on to the concept a bit more; hearing about how they were normal people who now suffer because of what has been done. I'll run into travelers or people wearing clothing and using weaponry from scraps they manage to gather. Or I'll meet people who long not for fancy jewels or money, but instead, want basic necessities like clean water and food. It's very surreal and immersive.
I believe that the atmospheres and environments are being overlooked by developers. They tend to see level design as just what fills in the middle part between Spot A and Spot B. They focus on designing something that will keep the player's attention until the end and seem to worry more about how it looks whether than what it looks like.
Allow me to explain my statement: A game's graphics are fairly important. While it can be argued of just how important they are, you don't need to be a scientist to know that people want to play a game that looks good. They want details and effects; they will stop to see how it looks to determine if it is a good or not but they do not pay much attention to what it is. When it comes to trying to stir an emotion within the player, developers use their characters and stories, which is good and all- we need more of it - but I think there also needs to be a balance with the environment as well.
Take the first Gears of War for example. It was a beautiful game but I personally didn't feel Cliffy's full concept of 'beautify in destruction' with the whole city being demolished by the Locus. While the levels were nicely designed, never once did I really stop in the game and think, "My god...This use to be city...This use to be where people lived simply lives wand wanted peace but now look it..." I didn't necessarily get that feeling of departure from 'my post-war' life through Marcus to my 'in-war' life that I was playing as Marcus through.
Gears of War 2 did a slightly better job at by focusing on the idea of 'humanity's last stand' with Jacinto being the last safe haven for human life. This idea is explored a bit more with the character's commenting on their past lives or how the cities use to be before the Locus began destroying them. It was a nice little add on that helped to tie everything emotionally together. The more I played the game, the more I felt the need to protect Jacinto at all costs and the more dedicated I began to feel thus allowing me to somewhat get into the game more.
I'd like to see more developers doing this. I'd like to see them explore the idea of emotions not just coming from character reactions or from twists in the story. With gaming still growing and developers still exploring new approaches to tell their stories, I have no doubt that one day we will see more games with emotional environments.
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