Still, when asked what art forms speak the most to us, games don’t rank at the top. Ranked 1 to 6, where 1 is the most emotional, the order was: movies, music, books, video/PC games, paintings/artwork, and last cars. (OK, so I have a thing for cars?)
Heavy gamers have more of a feeling for movies. Lighter and younger gamers are more moved by music.
For genres, I thought MMOs would top the list, but RPGs are the runaway winner — by far the most emotional genre of videogames. —Hugh Bowen —Can Videogames Make You Cry? (bowenresearch.com)
This is a teaser article, advertising a full-length report. While I’m very interested in the subject, journalists should be careful of how they use this kind of study.
Was the study peer-reviewed? What was the methodology? What is the author’s purpose in publishing it (and selling copies on his eponymous website)?
I’ll have to look into the death of Aeries from Final Fantasy VII. Interactive fiction fans seem to place the fate of Floyd the robot (from Infocom’s 1983 Planetfall) in the same category.
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Dennis, I own Final Fantasy VII for PS One (also available for PC) and I agree, Aeris's death is powerful and cathartic. One interactive component in that title is choosing responses that determine how main protagonist Cloud treats all three women in the game (Aeris, Tifa, Yuffie). There is a part when Cloud goes on a date with one of these three characters depending on which responses were chosen. Yuffie is the most difficult one to achieve. Final Fantasy VII is a pinnacle turning point for RPGs compared to its previous American predecessor, Final Fantasy III (or Japanese VI repackaged with Japanese V as Final Fantasy Anthology for PS One).