h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This game had some really strange dream effects on me. I had some unpleasant 'fear of being in high places and on edges dreams'. This was particularly disturbing as I've been climber for years and never felt quite like that in the real world.
Fantastic game though.

Interesting how it effected your psychology in such a way.. I wonder if you kept playing it the fear would spread to the real world?
I think it was Dr. Leary who once said that computers were the next best thing to LSD...

There can be a definite carry over of emotion into RL. Having spent an afternoon in Morrowind, I've come away with the aftermath of the emotion experienced while playing plus continuing to 'plan my next move' as though it were something I had to do in RL.

I can quite see how excessive game play can lead to difficulties living in reality.

Ico got to me, too, like no other game has, I think. Probably as much to do with the way it *sounded* as the way it looked. There was something so achingly lonely about the sound of the wind, a terrible doomed delicacy to the voices, and something seriously sinister about the noise the shadowmen made...

H.

I agree with you totally. The sound was a highly emotive factor and I know exactly what you mean when you say loneliness. There was an echoing emptiness that I think added to the empathy with the characters. A classic example of less is more.

Thanks for the reply.
I find all of this very interesting. I'm a Psychologist by training and have for a while now been trying to encourage my students to do coursework looking at computer games. Of particular interest to me is the empathy for characters (like Ico)and how this influences our experience of the game. I have a sneeky feeling that it's more important than flashy graphics and effects.

Definitely! I have got completely absorbed in games with quite basic graphics & text boxes. But that's like reading a good book & becoming immersed in the story. Perhaps it depends how good your imagination is?

All of this about games affecting people emotionally reminds me of the direction in which Shigeru Miyamoto is trying to take the Legend of Zelda series, despite the ignorant whining of mainstream gamers, "Oh, SD Link is a kid, I wanted to play as Adult Link, he's cooler!" is really getting on my nerves especially because no one minded playing as a kid in any Zelda game before it went 3D. Look at the camera shop in Link's Awakening and you will see SD Link. Don't tell me you weren't ready for this. Shigeru Miyamoto has been talking about games like interactive movies since Star Fox 64, hoping someday to make it so that the player could "see the difference between warm and cold water" in reference to a goal for OoT. I am all for SD Wind Waker because photorealism is a limit, not a goal.
>8^B

I have an immediate aversion to cell-shaded games so it's taken me a long time to accept the new Link.
I did quite like the adult version, but only because of the heart-rending nostalgia it causes when you return to the child form :>
I played Ocarina of Time before even seeing the Snes or Gameboy, so I'm biased towards the 3D forms.