Poll: Who do you empathize with most?

[Chamale]

I'm wondering what medium makes people relate to characters best, and feel empathy for them. Give your own perspective on what form of storytelling makes you relate to characters well.

Personally, I empathize best with video games characters. I find that my characters in RPGs have very well developed motives and personalities. With the many, many hours I play an RPG, these characters are much more important to me than someone I see in a movie for 2 hours or read about in a book for 4 hours.

When I play a role-playing game, I actually play a role, trying to establish elaborate backstory and consistency with my character. The exception is Pokemon, as my characters don't have any personalities. I just create a hollow shell that seeks the best team possible.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Visual novels have the best track record, so video games by default. Without those, it would probably be literature.

 

[Rand-m]

Very thought provoking conversation topic, I must say, but you're probably asking a biased crowd, assuming quite a few people here have played Heavy Rain.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

For me it's a tie between Video Games because of the fact that I'm playing the character and controlling their actions. Then Literature because it makes imagine that i'm in the setting and think of how the character is progressing in the story.

 

[Umberphoenix]

I'll be honest, when I read the title to this thread I thought "who do I emphasize with the most? Hitler, of course! I know what it feels like to have my birthday forgotten and suck at art."

But I digress.

I'd say characters in books, but that's probably because I really like reading.

 

[The1Krutz]

Television, though it's mostly a factor of length. A television series can go on for a lot longer than any movie, and most games, so you end up with more exposure to the character. And if the writers have done their jobs properly, long exposure to relatable, consistent characters is pretty much empathy in a bottle.

 

[Gaderael]

I'd have to say:
1. Literature/Graphic Novels- The length of the medium allows for greater character development and gives more time to develop an attachment. I have to include Graphic novels with literature. Like books, if the writer can think it, it can be done, so you have these amazing ideas on the page. Amazing characters, like the Icon that is Superman or the complex characters in the X-Men, or even the awesomeness of the characters of The Boys.

2. TV Shows - Like books they are long and have good character development, but you're relying on an actor to fill out the character and make you like them, whereas in books, it's just the writer and your imagination

3. Games - With a few exceptions, games are not as long as TV shows and books. It's harder to really fall for a character, though it does happen. Games like Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, Fallout can really flesh out a character, both your own and NPCs.

4. Movies - Yeah, there are great movies with great characters, but you usually get two to two and a half hours tops to connect with a character.

 

[Chancie]

Definitely video games for me. Thinking through all of the listed medias in the poll, video games is by faaaar the biggest one for me. I get attached to characters so easily in games.

 

[Yingyangathena]

Literature would be the one I empathise with the most, with games being second.

 

[Avaholic03]

Not all movies, but the really good ones do it the best. TV shows can be good, but they often fall back on stupid cliches that make me not care. Video games, not so much, because if something goes wrong you can just restart a checkpoint...that kind of ruins the immersion for me.

 

[bobknowsall]

Movies tend to elicit an emotional response out of me the most, along with TV shows. It's probably the fact that I'm seeing real people on the screen, and there's less of a disconnect between me and them.

Dragon Age: Origins's ending is probably an exception, though.

 

[Catalyst6]

Literature, definitely. Although "empathizing" may be a problem as most of the books I read end up with the main character being some kind of serial killer but he didn't know it and he first killed his dad who was really his mom and all that Shyamalan crap.

For videogames it's almost an instinct to burn it down to its nuts and bolts, to manipulate it in order to get the best result regardless of plot. You know what I mean, where if you hide the character behind that brick then it'll take you 0.85 seconds to sprint to the next yadda yadda yadda. It's not a conscious thing, you just automatically do it if you've spent enough time in the "hard mode zone". In short, you can't empathize with stats.

And don't get me started on MMORPGS. One look at the tables for damage in WoW makes you lose faith in the plot at all.