Confessions of a Crybaby

[John Walker]

Confessions of a Crybaby

"This week's titular question is obviously a silly one. Answer: Yes. Next issue please!" John Walker explains why games can and should make you cry.

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[GeeDave]

18th April 2006 eh? Is it by pure chance that it happened to appear on the front page under "Articles of Interest"? Or is there something else going on here?

I've had the pleasure of playing at-least 80% of the games you have mentioned, but I can safely say that none of them have brought me to my knees, fists slamming into the carpet of my living room whilst my mind subconsciously thinks about the tale of that frog who cried so much he made himself a pond.

However, that's not to say I am completely without emotion. In games like Diablo 2 my heart skips a beat when my character... who I have spent so long training up, gets brutally murdered by a pack of beasts in some dark and dingy catacomb. I get a little worried... thinking about how easily I was taken out with all of my armour, all of my strength and all of what made my character the best it could be, and now... I return to the town centre, with nothing but rags and a goal. I would nervously make my way back to my place of death, tip-toe'ing if I could, and if some demon spawn happens to spot me, I run... for as long as my stamina permits me.

I'll admit to 'nearly' shedding a tear at the end of Final Fantasy 8. I had completed it quite early in the day and found myself so broken off from reality. I couldn't believe it was over, I wished it wasn't... I wished I could dive into that world that I had just saved from an evil sorceress and say "Hey guys, it's me! Your saviour". I would watch the final FMV sequence of everything being back to normal, Zell finally gets his hot dogs, Squall finally gets the girl, Scifer finally smiles with joy, rather than with an evil intent. Those were good times, and all I could do was watch as the screen turned black, the credits rolled... and then it was all over for me.

No other game has really sucked me in as much as that, I've felt mild cases of anger, I've been scared, I've been annoyed... but I've never cried. FF8 put a lump in my throat, and nothing else has even come close.

Nice article, you big whuss!

 

[Hiphophippo]

I'm a monster sap. It doesn't take much to get the ol' eyes waterin'. Good games do it often.

 

[Dogstile]

I've never actually cried because of a game before. I've been scared. I've felt suspense and excitement, and i've yelled that glorious victory cry when your guild in any MMO has won a hard battle.

I don't know why. Maybe crying is something i don't want to do because of a game. To me, crying is a negative emotion. Something you do when you've been hurt deeply. For that reason alone i do not like the prospect of crying because of a game.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I don't know why. Maybe crying is something i don't want to do because of a game. To me, crying is a negative emotion. Something you do when you've been hurt deeply. For that reason alone i do not like the prospect of crying because of a game.

I can see that, certainly. Grief and sadness are far and away the most common source of tearjerking.

Rarer, perhaps, is the story or game that provokes tears due to unexpected happiness. Likely because it's harder to pull off, but it does happen...well, it has to me, at least. >_>

 

[LordWalter]

18th April 2006 eh? Is it by pure chance that it happened to appear on the front page under "Articles of Interest"? Or is there something else going on here?

I've had the pleasure of playing at-least 80% of the games you have mentioned, but I can safely say that none of them have brought me to my knees, fists slamming into the carpet of my living room whilst my mind subconsciously thinks about the tale of that frog who cried so much he made himself a pond.

However, that's not to say I am completely without emotion. In games like Diablo 2 my heart skips a beat when my character... who I have spent so long training up, gets brutally murdered by a pack of beasts in some dark and dingy catacomb. I get a little worried... thinking about how easily I was taken out with all of my armour, all of my strength and all of what made my character the best it could be, and now... I return to the town centre, with nothing but rags and a goal. I would nervously make my way back to my place of death, tip-toe'ing if I could, and if some demon spawn happens to spot me, I run... for as long as my stamina permits me.

I'll admit to 'nearly' shedding a tear at the end of Final Fantasy 8. I had completed it quite early in the day and found myself so broken off from reality. I couldn't believe it was over, I wished it wasn't... I wished I could dive into that world that I had just saved from an evil sorceress and say "Hey guys, it's me! Your saviour". I would watch the final FMV sequence of everything being back to normal, Zell finally gets his hot dogs, Squall finally gets the girl, Scifer finally smiles with joy, rather than with an evil intent. Those were good times, and all I could do was watch as the screen turned black, the credits rolled... and then it was all over for me.

No other game has really sucked me in as much as that, I've felt mild cases of anger, I've been scared, I've been annoyed... but I've never cried. FF8 put a lump in my throat, and nothing else has even come close.

Nice article, you big whuss!

=p and here I was about to talk about how FF8 makes me all watery-eyed.

Still, I agree, the throat-clenching and the watery eyes isn't actual out-and-out sobbing.

 

[Echolocating]

I can get a little weepy while watching a movie. Heck, sometimes a soulful song can catch me off guard, but I've never played a game that has even come close to making me cry.

I want games that welcome any investment of empathy from me, but it rarely happens at any appreciative level. They tend to slam the door in my face most of the time. To be honest, most video game production has painful flaws that take a player out of the moment in the blink of an eye: poor animation, bad voice overs, terrible dialog, etc.

When the lessons learned from movie directors are taught to game directors, we'll see some pretty awesome shit.

 

[irrelevantnugget]

I'm surprised Aeris/Aerith didn't get mentioned. FFVII just had you WANTING to care about her. You team up with her early in the game, after Cloud got seperated from the rest of AVALANCHE. She gets in trouble, so you go out and save her, defying even the shinra, who pretty much control entire Midgar. Once you're out of there, she'll likely be your dedicated healer. And then, all of a sudden, she leaves the party, tries to do it on her own. You know that she's fighting a hopeless fight like this, and try to get her back once more, only this time, you're too late.

(Also illustrates how powerless shinra is compared to Sephiroth (or well... Jenova, rather). You could beat shinra, but not good ol' Seph)

... I need to go play FFVII again.

 

[inpachi]

Who cares......... AND SHUT UP GUY TALKING ABOUT FFVII i didnt care that that btch died she should of been in the kitchen anyways... That game is so gawddamn overrated! EVERY TIME I HEAR THE NAME I THINK A PIECE OF THE GAMER SOUL IN ME DIES!!!!! It is just like Halo.. Why do all the mediocre games get immortalized? Why cant a game that's actually good have that for a change? FF6 was so gawddamn better than FF7.. FF8 SUCKED ASS!!! i lost interest not even half an hour in.. At least FF7 kept me interested till the end.. Al be it barely.. FF9 was good much better than FF7 and 8 Combined.. FF10 AARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH AGAIN WITH THE CRAP! FF11 Good very good MMO to bad you have to pay for it.. FF12 ARGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH AGAIN WITH THE CRAP! FF13 I can guarantee it will suck!!

 

[Seldon2639]

I'm surprised Aeris/Aerith didn't get mentioned. FFVII just had you WANTING to care about her. You team up with her early in the game, after Cloud got seperated from the rest of AVALANCHE. She gets in trouble, so you go out and save her, defying even the shinra, who pretty much control entire Midgar. Once you're out of there, she'll likely be your dedicated healer. And then, all of a sudden, she leaves the party, tries to do it on her own. You know that she's fighting a hopeless fight like this, and try to get her back once more, only this time, you're too late.

(Also illustrates how powerless shinra is compared to Sephiroth (or well... Jenova, rather). You could beat shinra, but not good ol' Seph)

... I need to go play FFVII again.

Final Fantasy VII was important for one very specific reason:

It taught an entire generation of gamers how to cry. And it taught an entire medium that if they do their jobs well, they can make gamers cry. It didn't take great graphics, or even voices, but just the believability of a sweet, innocent, caring woman being ruthlessly slaughtered while we (both as players, and the characters themselves) can do nothing. After spending a huge amount of time with this person, really getting to know her, and (more importantly) being shown over and over again that we can overcome all of the challenges we're faced with, she's murdered and we have to watch.

Admittedly, no one really bawls their eyes out at a video-game, but I can't think of the last book or movie which caused me to actually "cry". We sob a bit, shed a few tears, but we don't go into hysterics. That's an unreasonable standard for us to want to hold games. The question is "does it impact you the same way a book would", the answer was then (and many times still is now) "yes".

 

[Buffoon]

Admittedly, no one really bawls their eyes out at a video-game

I did. Over the end of FFVIII. There are very, very few things in the world that have made me cry more. Admittedly I'm probably on the verge of real emotional instability, but things that I find beautiful make me emotional. Usually it's music, there are some pieces I can't listen to without becoming emotional (and a lot of that is stuff from the Final Fantasy piano collections).