Emotional Attachment to Video Game heroes.

[Blade]

When I play games that have a really good storyline, I tend to let myself get completely sucked into that game world. And when I do this, I usually tend to feel a sort of emotional attachment to the hero of the game.

I played Mass Effect just a few months ago, and I remember getting to the ending and thinking (I should say fearing) for a few minutes that Shepard might be dead. This is a guy I'd gone on a journey with, fighting robots and Aliens and giant space worms, exploring outer space, watching your mentor Captain Anderson get screwed over by the council, seducing Ashley (or the Alien chick, whatever you're into...), chasing Saren all over the universe and finding out the terrible secret behind Sovereign. I'd gone through all that in this virtual world with this virtual character. None of it was real. But when I thought that Shepard was dead, I was really hoping that he wasn't and I marked out when I discovered he wasn't.

When you take games seriously and you allow yourself to get sucked into a games world this can happen. Especially if it's a game that you love. You find yourself feeling genuine emotion towards the hero you play as and the characters that affect his life. When you think about it, it's slightly weird to care about a virtual person that you played as for 20 or so hours. But how is it any weirder than someone growing an emotional attachment to a character in their favourite movie or TV series? That person isn't real either.

So have you ever found yourself with a really strong emotional attachment to a character in a game you've played? Do you think it's unhealthy to feel like that about a fake character, or is it perfectly natural?

 

[Dave]

I don't think it is unnatural to feel some sort of connection to a character in a game. In my opinion, it is much the same as watching a movie or a TV show that has a protagonist that you can really relate to. For instance, a movie that I recently watched, "V For Vendetta" has a protagonist that is such a special character, that you can't help but be taken in by the story and care for the character. It is obviously not unnatural to have these feelings towards character in either games or films, depending on what you like. In fact, a lot of directors will take advantage of your feelings towards a protagonist and will make a better overall product because of it.

The same, in the end, is true of video games. The best example of this I have ever seen is Tidus in Final Fantasy X. I know, I know, I am a fan boy but I don't care. The game had the most enthralling story I have played through and the fate of the character was integral in making the games o good. Personally, I feel a lot of emotion towards characters in video games. You will find that the better games will have a protagonist that people can relate to. It is a tool that developers use and will continue to use in the future.

 

[ABMorales787]

I remember how "in to it" I was when I was playing the Legacy Of Kain games. Raziel gets stabbed in the back by Kain just for growing wings, he can die, he gets a cool ghost sword but it tries to kill him, he tries to change his fate, he discovers he's the reason he becomes a vampire and after all that, he just becomes a part of the Reaver Blade. All that, and he still couldn't fix anything. The story behind him really made me feel sorry for him. He tried everything to save himself and nothing worked. To this day he's my number one character (Megaman's my #1 series, #2 character).

 

[Dagger Dias]

There is nothing wrong with emotional attachments to characters in a video game. It shows that the developers did a good job because they made you care about the characters. The best example of this in my opinion is Tales of Symphonia, I cared about the entire playable cast.

I made it a goal for Division Blade (the RPG that I am creating) to try to make the people playing the game to form emotional attachments to everyone in the main playable cast, it's something that is much tougher to do than one might think. Lots of character development during the talking scenes is needed.

 

[Platypus Palsy]

I just got finished with Modern Warfare 2 and I was a little too attached to the characters. When even one of the random Privates or someone died, I would get pissed over that. When I saw Price, it was like seeing The Rock return and wrestle (or at least what I think that would feel like). I started to actually hate Russia and want to invade it. Once the whole game was over, I calmed down and everything.

Only a few other games have done this to me. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas did this to me as well. When someone would die, I felt bad. Even when I had to kill Ryder it was weird feeling.

I also think of Call of Duty World at War, it was the same case as Modern Warfare 2.