186: Violently Happy

[Dean Reilly]

Violently Happy

Plenty of developers have tried to inject a little more happiness into their games. So why does it always come out so ... creepy?

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[Eagle Est1986]

A really enjoyable read actually, good article.
That smiley Kratos is really freaking me out though.

 

[Clemenstation]

The art for this feature is awesome. It could also serve as a metaphor for what would happen if Playstation fanboys and Xbox fanboys got together and drank a ton of cough syrup.

 

[mrhertz]

Keep things where they are, or should be. Happiness is a short lasting state.

At least on circus charlie the poor clown has to smile to please his audience. Problem is on "Magical Tree", another old game, where an indian climbs up a huge huge tall taller tree, just... to get there. And all the times he´s smiling, ALL THE TIMES...

But you have nintendogs, tamagotchis, and then the games had an add-on on its own history. I dont remember any tk-90x, cp500 or msx games with that "peaceful" way of gaming... passtime.

We have Club penguin, SIMS, nintendogs, and of course every game has a problem that threats the whole system or play session, even a minimal tamagotchi, but things meet different audiences.

Maybe the author of this post managed to go round and round only to get there "make players miserable".

Makes sense to push everyone harder to get the goal... this "miserable state" once cited, but doesnt mean that an expression cant be used to express a feeling of a combo, or a relief after a bridge crossing.

Maybe Kratos might scream and please himself after beating a big boss. Maybe players can be driven to feel that they must protect a group of people, a city, a battle squad, and by beating a boss they could ensure that protection, which would make them feel like "DONE, my people is safe", or you can make a way to help NPCS othen than killing 300 goblins to get a single nail in order to place on a wedding collar.

For many times we celebrated birthdays on MMOs... On xmas I made a big santa with coins on the ground. And one or two stupids tried to get the coins, which were killed in the next second, but some others just came and "wow thats great, merry xmas... let me help"

Then people gave gifts like money, parts, potions, just to please others, or strangers. I watched that happen, and even being for the reason of a xmas behind it, was an act of good will, to make people happier...

Why would you give 10000 gold coins to a stranger, if not to promote happiness?

I think some facial expressions can be used to express a lot of things on a game, and im not meaning "emotes", but in-game automatic changes, out of your control (Kratos smiling after beating the demon).

I think is just a matter of exploring new things. But surely they arent banal.

 

[paste]

Cross-fecal contamination? What are you talking about?

Also, yes, clowns are creepy, but you should understand that most games you talk about come from Japan, which is extremely different from America, culturally. Their advertisements are filled with cartoonish, happy art, and it is simply understood better there. Take, for instance, the difference in box art for Kirby's Air Ride for Gamecube. There's really only one significant difference: Kirby is smiling on the Japanese cover and angry on the American cover.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

GAMZ IS SRS BZNIS.

(I wonder if this is the root of so many players' negative reaction to Moira in Fallout 3. She was chipper, the Capital Wasteland was not. Then again, that doesn't explain the popularity of the Herbert "Daring" Dashwood radio play. Hmm...)

-- Steve

PS: Hey, gamer, let's put a smile on your face! *licks lips*

 

[Dean Reilly]

Hi all, Dean here - author of the opinion piece - thanks for your comments. Anton, part of me now *really* wishes there was a good Dark Knight game, because I'd have loved to have used that quote in the main body of the feature. And Clemenstation - agreed, gotta love the smiley Marcus and Kratos. I was wondering how the art team would illustrate the piece, and I think it's ace. As for the cross-fecal contamination thing? I think we should never speak of that again...

 

[Jumplion]

One word; LittleBigPlanet.

Seriously, it's near impossible to not smile while playing the game, especially with friends. Infact, it is impossible to not smile while playing LittleBigPlanet with friends. Wether it's jumping around with a bunch of explosives, or playing a spooky level where everyone is running around like crazy, it just fun to play LBP.

Though that might be because playing with friends is always fun and happy.

Oh, and Kratos and Dom? Smiling? Yeah, I'll have nightmares with taht face for a while...

 

[SenseOfTumour]

To me Moira seems to have decided I'm a big brainless lummox, and she can get me to go on repeated suicide missions for a few caps, and she seems to talk to me like I'm a kid, too.

But , to the main topic, Katamari!

To me, apart from the King being such a miserable bastard and knocking you down if you fail, its pure joy from end to end, even when your crushing hundreds of living people and animals into a hyper dense star, its all laughs!

 

[Sylocat]

If games "fake happiness," then by your own words the "sadness and misery" are faked as well, because we enjoy it.

"To keep players happy," you say, "you need to make them miserable." If this gross generalization is true, and the in-game misery makes us happy, how is it any different from us finding the in-game happiness scary?

By your own logic, games fake all emotions across the spectrum.

 

[Brett Alex]

Very good article. Happiness is overrated

EDIT: And yes, the smiling Marcus and Kratos were pretty... odd, but in a good way. It looks like the promotional poster for two TV hosts on the same station that secretly hate each other, and are faking it for the cameras.

 

[Fearzone]

Happiness is fleeting. Contentment can be lasting, if you are lucky. But the human emotional barometer is for the most part set to okay-ness. If some computer game did somehow make us happy, great, they just invented the new electronic smack addiction and we could all drool in front of our monitors forevermore.

Generally when I play against an AI it's to kill time. For the most part I'm enjoying myself, but I wouldn't call it happy. Now, after a particularly challenging game against a human player(s) in whatever milieu, sometimes then I truly am happy, and smiling, for a half-hour or so. It passes.

I take what I can get. It's all good.

 

[Galletea]

Great article, I really enjoyed it. Yes most happy games are pretty creepy if you think about them, from the fury in cooking mama's eyes when you do wrong, to the raising and murdering of little happy piñata. Still I try not to think about the creepiness, after all it is a fantasy realm and not reality, although I can't bring myself to play Viva Piñata. Patapon is a happy game, until you remember its about warring factions for a goal that will most likely be nothing like the mystical paradise it's meant to be. War might be hell, but the emotional turmoil those games attempt to inflict on you is indeed ultimately more rewarding.

 

[shMerker]

Mario actually pretends to be very serious. He usually has a look of grim determination on his face befitting someone who's trying to rescue his girlfriend from a dragon. But he can't help him self. All that jumping and flying is just too much fun for him not to crack a smile.

The prince from the Katamari games is the opposite. His face is always on screen and it always shows a pained expression. Which makes sense since he is pushing around masses that are orders of magnitude greater than his own to clean up after someone who never seems to be pleased.

I don't really get what's so wrong or rare about games that try to make people happy. Space Channel 5 hit all the right notes in taking some catchy, up-beat music and using it to put a smile on my face. I mean, I guess there was an evil plot, or something I should've been scared by? Or some kind of dystopianism in that Ulala inhabits a world where people can be made to dance?

Sorry. If it looks I'm having trouble commenting on this opinion piece it's probably because I'm extremely hazy on what the author's opinion is. Is there something wrong about games that use vibrant colors or try to depict non-violent conflicts or their characters enjoying situations that are perilous for them? Is it that these games are uncommon? Is it that they're uncommon for a good reason? Maybe it's that the past few years of reddish-brown-on-brown-on-brown games just isn't enough.

While we're addressing all this forced happiness maybe we should take a look at the other guys. The mercenaries and warriors who seem to enjoy all the chaos that surrounds them. The ones who you can't imagine doing anything but fighting for their entire lives because they don't really seem complete without blood on their hands. That seems to be the picture of mental health this article is painting. I'd say something about how heroes in shooter games are usually sociopaths but Valve already did that by making Team Fortress 2.

 

[ranger19]

Interesting article, though I'm not sure I buy the argument. Part of me felt like the author was thinking about games too hard when writing this. Hello Kitty evil? I feel it's a stretch. Also, the whole Mario-is-going-to-have-to-rescue-Peach-again idea I don't think is necessarily true; each game has always felt like its own world, different from all the others. It's not like there's one storyline running through every mario game.

Finally, I think there are games that make you feel plain happy. One poster above mentioned LittleBigPlanet - I think that's a great example. The one that came to mind while reading this though was Loco Roco - everyone just looks so happy while playing! I can't help but smile to the tunes and happy faces there.

Even with these qualms, it still was an interesting read.

 

[ender214]

Good article. It doesn't make a gamer happy to see his character happy. It makes a gamer happy to make things dead.

 

[zoozilla]

Very interesting article.

There really is no Lilies of the Field equivalent in the gaming world.

Interestingly, a lot of those "happy" games were made specifically for little children, so it's really no wonder that they fail to provide any sort of joy. It's like expecting a live-action Disney movie from the last 15 years to be good.

By the way, I really like that Bjork song.