What was a profound moment that a video game caused you to experience, and why?
The moment that inspired this question:
A long time ago I was playing an MMO called Voyage of the Century Online. A major part of the game was sailing around on a galleon ship and having naval battles in the 1600s.
The game basically allowed you to sail around all of the oceans of the 1600s world and explore. The game was populated with a lot of NPC ships that you could raid and pick up its cargo for loot.
One time, I was sailing around the western coast of Africa and I came across some slavers. This was shocking to me at the time, and I was like “oh, I’m gonna fuck these racist slavers up!”
I proceed to engage the slave ship in battle and win. As I approach the wreckage, I’m bummed out because there wasn’t any loot. Like every ship up until this point had at least some spare cannon balls or treasure, but this one had nothing.
… then it hit me. A slave ship’s cargo would be… people. I sunk this ship and the reason there wasn’t any loot was because I killed the cargo. I felt so bad.
I just sat there for a little while and felt guilty, but I always appreciated that the developers included that detail so I could be humbled in my own self-righteousness. Not all issues can be solved with force.
Journey by thatgamecompany - it is difficult to put into words what it is exactly that I experienced, and I think every person's take away will be a bit different, but there is a profound and overwhelming experience to be had with that short but wonderful game.
Firewatch has a turning point in its story which hits like a truck, and is very grounding. It takes a story which has felt almost whimsically frightening, and brings it much closer to home emotionally.
I started Fire watch and then got distracted by other things. I really need to get back to that.
Whole-heartedly agree. It’s worth it.
Let this be your sign to get back to it!
It's on my short list. I'll probably start over, it's been long enough. Right now I'm still playing Starfield and I tend to be monogamous with my story driven games.
Journey is one of my favorite games of all time purely because of how it made me feel. It was so hopeful and positive. And it made me feel connected to a complete stranger. I'm still impressed at how the communication is limited in a way that makes people bring out only the best in themselves. It's beautiful.
I feel the same with Journey! I will never forget my second playthrough, when a much more experienced player guided me and waited patiently for me to catch up. It is so comforting to go through it with someone else even if you cannot talk to them.
Journey does such a good job of conveying emotion through the environment and music, when I was done I just kind of sat for a bit thinking “woah”.
I don’t usually get that emotional with games, and I’m still not sure which emotion I was feeling, other than “all of them”, but it was more than a game, it was an experience.
Absolutely agree with you on that one. I felt so overwhelmed by the emotions I was feeling, but I also felt peaceful. Genuinely changed the course of my life - I was an asshole before I played it.