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Sony PlayStation (Games)

Sony's Phil Harrison Talks Emotion in Games 64

Posted by Zonk from the games-are-for-adults-apparently dept.
The increasingly enjoyable games coverage continues on the MTV site, despite the horrible flash interface. Stephen Totitilo sat down for a chat with Sony's Phil Harrison, and comes away with some interesting perspectives on the year. Mr. Harrison discusses Sony's outlook on their launch, the overall role of games in world culture, and the topic of game content as it relates to 'appropriateness'. Specifically, he dealt with the 'controversy' over Rockstar's well-received title Bully. From the article: "Harrison called it a 'storm in a teacup' stirred by politicians and media, embarking on a familiar argument that games aren't really just for kids. In this case, movies and books had delved into similar subject matter and seldom faced such protest. Did that give Harrison, someone with nearly unparalleled power to greenlight video games, any pause about the material he thinks he can offer gamers? 'It has absolutely not changed my approach,' he said. 'I fervently believe that the biggest challenge we face is that our industry is referred to as video games, and games are supposed to be fun,' he said, adding that games shouldn't have to only focus on light topics. 'Games should deal with fear, should deal with comedy and with death. They should deal with peril, with drug offenses.'"
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Sony's Phil Harrison Talks Emotion in Games More

Sony's Phil Harrison Talks Emotion in Games

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  • Emotions in modern games (Score:5, Funny)

    by jfclavette ( 961511 ) on Tuesday December 19, 2006 @02:32PM (#17302498)
    "Shit. I paid 60 bucks for THIS ?"

  • No flash! (Score:4, Informative)

    by wongn ( 777209 ) * <nathan.random@NospAm.gmail.com> on Tuesday December 19, 2006 @02:32PM (#17302508) Homepage
    The sane amongst you might prefer the plain HTML version: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1548258/20061218/ id_0.jhtml [mtv.com]
  • Anyone remember that episode of MST3K where they're making fun of one of the Gamera movies, and there's a little kid that's obsessed with the horrendous evil of traffic accidents? I was reminded of that when I read that list of primal emotions and concepts followed by "drug offenses." Didn't finish your point very well, Phil.

    Rob
  • Emotions are evolution's guide for us through situations that bear on our future well-being or survival.

    Games are ways of doing things that would, in the same real world situation, evoke very strong emotions. But you don't feel the same emotions in a game because the game is safe. You don't even feel the same emotions to a lesser degree; instead you feel emotions limited to your success or failure in the game: anxiety, frustration and happiness.

    What makes a game less emotionally immersive than a book or m

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I think you misunderstood what Sony's Phil Harrison means when he says emotionally immersive; what he means is "In HD" and has very little interest in anything else.
    • Maybe you cried when ET died. The only way you could feel the same way in a game is if you had nothing to do. Perhaps there will be hybrid entertainment forms in the future having emotionally immersive and task immersive components.

      Who needs the future - these already exist! Many games already alternate between gameplay and cutscenes, with the passive cutscenes aiming to evoke various emotional responses. Perhaps the most prominent example (though certainly not the first) would be the death of Aeris in Fina

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hey! ( 33014 )
        Yes, you make an interesting point, although your example smacks of melodrama.

        I was thinking less along the lines of payoffs (positive or negative), and more along the line of motivation. It would be interesting if you cared about a character beforehand, and emotional involvement impaired your performance.
        • According to in-game chat someone in EVE-Online lost a Titan class ship the other day (read: MONTHS of invested gametime) I'm sure they had some rather strong emotions.
        • your example smacks of melodrama

          The death of Aeris in FF VII is far from melodramatic - a notable feature of the game is that the protagonist, Cloud, is generally understated in his response to the situations he finds himself in.

          I was thinking less along the lines of payoffs (positive or negative), and more along the line of motivation

          I recommend Shadow of the Colossus [fourfatchicks.com] as an example of a game where emotional motivation is central.

          I wouldn't say it impairs the player's performance, but then it shouldn't, I

      • Wow, I thought of Aeris almost immediately upon reading the abstract. Nice to know I wasn't the only one.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by markbt73 ( 1032962 )

      Floyd staggers to the ground, dropping the mini card. He is badly torn apart, with loose wires and broken circuits everywhere. Oil flows from his lubrication system. He obviously has only moments to live.

      You drop to your knees and cradle Floyd's head in your lap. Floyd looks up at his friend with half-open eyes. "Floyd did it ... got card. Floyd a good friend, huh?" Quietly, you sing Floyd's favorite song, the Ballad of the Starcrossed Miner: ....

      As you finish the last verse, Floyd smiles with contentment, and then his eyes close as his head rolls to one side. You sit in silence for a moment, in memory of a brave friend who gave his life so that you might live."

      • Wow, what's that from? I think if I was in the middle of a game and actually knew what was going on then that would be a moving moment. I know that I've been occasionally been moved by well thought out games, but it is very rare.
    • I disagree. Well-made RPGs do evoke emotion (provided you're paying attention to the plot and characters and not stupid leveling) for the same reasons that a book or movie may.

      • Re:I doubt games will ever evoke much emotion (Score:5, Interesting)

        by rudeboy1 ( 516023 ) on Tuesday December 19, 2006 @03:59PM (#17303868)
        I concur. Join a WoW guild run when they successfully bring down a boss for the first time, after weeks of trying. You, my friend will see hear more emotion on Vent than you know what to do with.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by pythian ( 259677 )
          To an degree, that's different.

          Multiplayer games have a higher capacity for elliciting emotion than single player simply because the characters in the multiplayer games are other people.

          In your WoW example, if the situation was NPCs and you vs boss, the emotion wouldn't be nearly the same.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Xymor ( 943922 )
        Before HD textures and realistic 3D models, they had to rely on storytelling to evoke an immersion. It seems that, for most people that is, all the flash makes up for no substance. Or, if you don't have enough money to spend on pretty graphics, just trow in "Mario" in the game title and millions will buy.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kelbear ( 870538 )
        I enjoyed FF8 even though most people seem to hate it. I got the no-fight item at level 8 so I could go through the game just to see the plot and background story without getting held back by the game mechanics.

        Some games have a great story to tell, and like great stories from a book, they can evoke emotion.
    • Ever played The Dig [mobygames.com]? The ending of that adventure game made me cry.
    • There are a few games I have played already that have evoked an emotional response. Just like one poster the death of Aeris did in fact make me cry. I felt an amazing feeling of wonder when I first played myst. I most definately felt fear and suspence from just about every Resident Evil game. I came to care for Alyx Vance in Half Life 2. Now with any subjective medium mileage may vary but games have been made already that do this, and lets not forget a well orchestrated game of DnD. Oh and another one would

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kelbear ( 870538 )
        I'd like to chime in on Alyx Vance.

        If the reader would play through HL:Episode One in dev commentary mode, you get a lot of information on how much revision they had to make regarding Alyx Vance.

        -Realism. The original Alyx had problems with appearing lifelike. Graphically, she looked pretty realistic, but was like a dead body on strings which can be very disturbing. So some adjustments were made to make her feel alive. Things like breathing, blinking, and fidgeting are important to fill the illusion.

        -Crafte

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *
      But you don't feel the same emotions in a game because the game is safe.

      I don't know. Those wiimotes are apparently pretty dangerous.

      -Eric

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by abradsn ( 542213 )
        Oh, my hand! How will I cash all my welfare checks now??? Guess I'll just have to sue Nintendo instead.
    • Maybe you cried when ET died.

      Dude, you forgot a *SPOILER* warning. Thanks for ruining it for me.

      Thank god for games, at least no protagonist ever dies in them. Did I mention I'm playing Final Fantasy 7 for the first time? Wow, Aeris really rocks, best character _evar_! :-)
    • So in other words, since I'm emotionally invested in my life, nothing that happens in my life will be as meaningful to me as that emotional episode of Mama's Family

    • Maybe you cried when ET died. The only way you could feel the same way in a game is if you had nothing to do. Perhaps there will be hybrid entertainment forms in the future having emotionally immersive and task immersive components.

      Hold on.. I'm having a flash of insight!

      Perhaps there can be a break in the action.. a cut away from control.. in which you would passively watch the action like in a play or movie.. hmm.. but what shall we call my mad idea?

      -GiH
      Don't get angry, I'm just joshin ya :).

    • I disagree. With well-characterized avatars and sufficiently intelligent stories, a game can be extremely powerful emotionally. I know I was quite moved by the ending to Shadow of the Colossus. The difference between games and movies is that A) games in general have attracted virtually no highly talented writers/storytellers, or at least not employed them in any way that enabled them to create sophisticated events, and B) games, being interactive, have a very different scope of emotions that they are well-s

  • 'Games should deal with fear, should deal with comedy and with death. They should deal with peril, with drug offenses.'
    A game should be a bad trip?

  • Books, Movies, and Games (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MiceHead ( 723398 ) * on Tuesday December 19, 2006 @02:57PM (#17302896) Homepage
    In this case, movies and books had delved into similar subject matter and seldom faced such protest.

    One thing that heartens me is that movies, books, and music have covered these subjects and have been protested for it. In many cases, we're now on the other side of that: dealing with (some) tricky subject matter has become acceptable. We can use those mediums to talk about topics that are taboo.

    If that can happen for traditional media, it can happen for video games, and that's a Good Thing(tm). I'm optimistic.

    __________________________________________________ __________________
    Dejobaan Games - Bringing you quality video games for over 75 years.

  • Emotion Engine (Score:2, Insightful)

    by jizziknight ( 976750 )
    So that's what they were trying to do with the Emotion Engine.

    Seriously, though. To make a game as emotionally moving as a movie or book, there's needs to be a well-developed plot and rich characters that the player(s) can identify with and/or fall in love with. A lot of games lack one or both of those. Also, few games tell much of a story other than having you complete objective A, B, and C to fight Boss 4B and see the next cutscene. Until a higher level of depth is achieved, video games will not evoke muc
    • As odd as the plot was I cared a lot when Aeris died in FFVII. I got upset that the nameless one was condemned to hell and Deionarra story in torment upset me too. The Atmosphere of fratal frame also affected me. I agree completely it's all about well crafted story and atmosphere.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MenTaLguY ( 5483 )
      I think Ico and Shadow of the Colossus did pretty well on that count, actually, without explicitly fleshing out the plot or characters that much. Stringing together a few highly evocative elements with minimal distractions seems to be enough to get your brain to do the rest.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by nomadic ( 141991 )
        Stringing together a few highly evocative elements with minimal distractions seems to be enough to get your brain to do the rest.

        Text adventures did the same thing; games like Trinity or Planetfall had some very emotional moments.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by MenTaLguY ( 5483 )
          Indeed. I think part of the problem is that most modern games are too invested in flash, blink and shine, and squandering their opportunities for being evocative. For a game to be really evocative requires either a full-on cinematic treatment (which tends to interfere with gameplay), or a really economical treatment which is minimalist in the same way good poetry is.
  • I recently posted about a similar subject elsewhere ( http://www.guildcafe.com/showthread.php?p=4261#pos t4261 [guildcafe.com] ), but to net out my thoughts on this: the most memorable games are those that make you feel something. Years from now you won't care what the graphics look like, but you will remember how a particular game made you feel. If a game doesn't make you feel something (fear, elation, wonder, romance, or whatever) I think you'll forget about it.

    I still remember how Ultima VII made me feel 15 years a

  • The guy's got a point (Score:3, Insightful)

    by thatguywhoiam ( 524290 ) on Tuesday December 19, 2006 @04:16PM (#17304120)
    On his particular quote in the summary, I definitely agree. 'Video games' has the same stigma that 'comic books' have languished under for many years, and perhaps gives us a hint as to how much hope we can have of altering that. It is interesting to observe, for instance, that most people seem have no idea that the video game industry has been generating more cash than the movie industry for several years now. That is but one metric, but the Jack Thompsons of the world would have you believe that this new interactive medium is somehow corrosive to one's personality - I would think that this argument had been beaten to death back when RPGs were supposed to be making teens kill themselves, etc.

  • Interesting (Score:4, Interesting)

    by thatguywhoiam ( 524290 ) on Tuesday December 19, 2006 @04:21PM (#17304164)
    Trying to watch the video from Toronto results in:

    COPYRIGHTS RESTRICT US FROM PLAYING THIS VIDEO OUTSIDE THE U.S.

    Note to MTV: my personal Emotion Engine is registering MILD ANNOYANCE

  • Silent Hill. Half the people who play Silent Hill 1 or 2 end up crying, either by the scene where Lisa turns or James watches the video. It's depressing as all hell.

  • Mod me flamebait (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by Guppy06 ( 410832 )
    "The increasingly enjoyable games coverage continues on the MTV site, despite the horrible flash interface. Stephen Totitilo sat down for a chat with Sony's Phil Harrison, and comes away with some interesting perspectives on the year."

    An interview with an executive from a game company that hardly focuses on playing games any more on a music channel that hardly focuess on playing music any more. Perfect!
  • I am completely outraged at how my kids are playing a game where the only way to lvl is to smoke pot in the back room, Yell profranities at teachers and break school property!

  • Emotions in Gaming (Score:2, Informative)

    by Atrox666 ( 957601 )
    Emotion in media does not have much to do with screen resolution in fact surprisingly the opposite is true.

    It seems that media (called cool media) where the consumer's brain can fill in the blanks is more emotionally immersive. Interactivity also cools the media which is why /. is so much more fun than the newspaper.

    If you're interested in that sort of stuff then there is simply no better book than Marshall McLuhan's "Understanding Media:The Extensions of Man".

    Here's the Wiki page on McLuhan for those who d

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