Putting little girls in danger is emotionally manipulative.

[WhiskeyKnight]

Bioshock

The Walking Dead

Bioshock Infinite

The Last of Us

Beyond: Two Souls

I'm beginning to notice a pattern here, and I'm not sure it's positive.

These games are all great, no doubt. I'm just afraid developers have found an easy narrative gimmick, exploiting a gaming audience that isn't used to nuance or complexity. It's not that these titles all feature a little girl as a character, it's that the emotional center of gravity rotates around her, and pretty much her alone. Putting defenseless women and children in jeopardy is a cheap way of generating emotional stakes.

Game Dev 1: "Alright, our game needs an emotional anchor. We need a character that players can really invest in, and develop a human relationship with. Who can we put in danger that people instinctively want to protect?"
Game Dev 2: "Uhh...should we just go with a little girl?"
Game Dev 1: "You're a goddamned genius."

Maybe this bothers me because I'm so susceptible to it. I'll admit I got choked up at the end of the Walking Dead. You'd have to have the emotion of Spock combined with a bag of bricks to endure the last scene of that game totally unmoved. I'm just afraid developers are starting to use it as a narrative crutch. And maybe that's not such a bad thing. Maybe interactivity means we have to eschew some degree of subtly to convey thematic elements other mediums take for granted. But I would hope to eventually move beyond it.

So yeah, the title of the thread may be a little hyperbolic, but I wanted to get you in here. Must we keep putting in jeporady the literal personification of innocence and fragility for our frigid hearts to feel the slightest twinge of human emotion? Anybody can make me feel for little Maddie, the adorable seven year old. But the first developer that makes me cry when Big Lou (sweaty, balding and overweight as he may be) takes a bullet at the end of the game -- well, that developer is the true goddamned genius.

 

[bennyc12]

Putting dogs into games that will inevitably die is emotionally manipulative.

The primary draw of a lot of the games that we play is the possibility of having an emotional reaction. I don't see your point. I kind of see your point.


Edit: Any story with narrative has some degree of emotional manipulation. I'm not sure putting little girls into a game is any more egregious than other tactics.

 

[Sethos]

It works, thus they do it.

Wait until CoDog dies, you will cry like a baby.

 

[Kai Dracon]

It definitely seems to be becoming the new du jour for games, regardless of what relation it has to larger issues of how females are portrayed in games.

The problem is how the game industry seems to operate: zombies are in? Everything is a zombie game. People liked that one gun with the square reflex laser sight in COD? Make sure every gun in every game has that sight, including the sci-fi games with plasma rifles.

I guess we'll see if "girls in danger" quickly becomes oversaturated next.

 

[Byronic Hero]

Putting dogs into games that will inevitably die is emotionally manipulative.


The primary draw of a lot of the games that we play is the possibility of having an emotional reaction. I don't see your point.

Poor Collar Duty. He was specifically created to be horribly massacred over the course of the game

 

[jtb]

but it's "adult!!!!11"

more seriously though: it's not so much that it's emotionally manipulative (every story ever sets out to manipulate you emotionally) it's that it's so blatant and shameless about it.

honestly, it's lazy.

 

[GolazoDan]

I've played Mass Effect 3, I know what happens when you endanger a small boy instead of a small girl. It ends badly.

 

[Always-honest]

Yeah, worked for Ashley..

 

[WhiskeyKnight]

Putting dogs into games that will inevitably die is emotionally manipulative.


The primary draw of a lot of the games that we play is the possibility of having an emotional reaction. I don't see your point.

Yeah, that Call of Duty dog is toast.

I guess my point is that hopefully there are more sophisticated ways of eliciting an emotional reaction.

 

[Cryolemon]

The primary draw of a lot of the games that we play is the possibility of having an emotional reaction. I don't see your point.

Exactly, that's kind of the point. If there was no emotional attachment a lot of games would be utter shite.

 

[Raide]

I am sure Anita Sarkeesian has a video on this.

 

[Pau]

What pisses me off is that I can't play as them, but gotta be the older man who takes care of them. Fuck that.

Exactly, that's kind of the point. If there was no emotional attachment a lot of games would be utter shite.

Eh, the "emotional" attachment made by games that follow this trend doesn't save them. I don't get emotionally attached to the characters; I roll my eyes at them.

 

[Mr_Joe]

Maybe developers are less motivated to do this now that the bar's been set so high.

The first game to really fuck it up is going to get so much hate, it'll be hilariously sad.

 

[Mandoric]

American developers have finally discovered "moe".

They haven't discovered that it comes off slightly as less slimy if you the player as father-figure-protector are completely disconnected from the narrative, and are just "protecting" the main character by controlling her well.

 

[StunandStab]

Putting dogs into games that will inevitably die is emotionally manipulative.


The primary draw of a lot of the games that we play is the possibility of having an emotional reaction. Any story with narrative has some degree of emotional manipulation. I'm not sure putting little girls into a game is any more egregious than other tactics.

Yeah fuck this stupid trick. I refuse to watch any movie or play any game in which a dog dies. It's just not fair

 

[Tomodachi]

Putting characters in danger is emotionally manipulative. I can see a pattern there and it's pretty bad!

 

[Ken]

My Little Sister Can't Be This Emotionally Manipulative.

 

[BigPickZel]

Games and other story-driven art forms are emotionally manipulative in every aspect of their plot. That's kind of the point. Having a character killed you've become attached to is manipulating your emotions. Putting characters in immediate danger is manipulating your emotions. When the third act concludes and everything you hoped would unfold for the characters has unfolded, well that is an organically arising life experience that is wholly separate from the vision of the storyteller*

*j/k, manipulated.

 

[AstroZombie]

Putting people you care about in danger is emotionally manipulative across the board.

Your point?

 

[PapaJustify]

It is funny that not even for children devs consider to use male gender. It is always women/girls that need saving.

 

[dollartaco]

AND I AM A SUCKER FOR IT

 

[jtb]

It is funny that not even for children devs consider to use male gender. It is always women/girls that need saving.

male dominated industry. It's not funny, it's just sad.

 

[Adam Blue]

Can't it just be the dude who wants to tell the story likes telling it that way? I love creating stories where I save a woman and having a daughter I love that shit even more.

The game stories I create in my head always star a man that loves a woman. And most developers are probably men that have that same primitive internal instinct.

 

[Tomat]

That's kind of the point.

But lets be real here, putting Ellen Page in danger is emotionally manipulative. Nobody cares about the rest.

 

[Cryolemon]

What pisses me off is that I can't play as them, but gotta be the older man who takes care of them. Fuck that.

That is an interesting point. Not sure the censors / moral majority would like anything approaching a death scene of a 10 year old girl though lol.

 

[OverturePT]

I kind of agree, it's a lazy way that works... oh well.

Then there's the Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us (from what I read) problem, in which these girls wander around and the enemy NPC's just kinda... ignore them. Oh, great, that's really immersion right there.

 

[Ostinatto]

also horses

 

[Dance Inferno]

As long as it can get a sincere emotional reaction out of you they'll keep using it. Once every game becomes about protecting little girls and its impact has worn off, developers will start looking for other methods of getting an emotional reaction out of you.

 

[Seanspeed]

I'm beginning to notice a pattern here, and I'm not sure it's positive.

For real. That haircut only looks good on some girls.

 

[Kayhan]

It is a natural human instinct to protect weak and vulnerable children.

I can't really get worked up about games using that to motivate the player.

It is better than the millionth save the universe plot.

 

[semiconscious]

i blame ico ...

it was the game that proved that it worked...

 

[jman2050]

Similar to everything else, Japan was on this tack long before western devs figured out that emotional manipulation via young women in crisis is easy mode.

Spoiler

I'm only half-joking...

 

[Salsa]

also horses

this is 10X more effective

 

[Meccanical]

Yeah no shit OP.

 

[SolarPowered]

Elizabeth is a little girl?

 

[7Th]

Cute animals work pretty well, too.

 

[Wynnebeck]

My Little Sister Can't Be This Emotionally Manipulative.

lol Should have been first reply.

 

[Roto13]

also horses

i blame ico ...

it was the game that proved that it worked...

That monster in The Last Guardian is fucking screwed.

 

[CambriaRising]

You include two games that haven't been released yet on top of Clementine which is one of the best written Adult-Child relationships in the medium.

 

[Jotamide]

For a second I thought this was a loli thread.

 

[Tomat]

What pisses me off is that I can't play as them, but gotta be the older man who takes care of them. Fuck that.


Eh, the "emotional" attachment made by games that follow this trend doesn't save them. I don't get emotionally attached to the characters; I roll my eyes at them.

Not everyone reacts like that. Can't please everyone.

For a second I thought this was a loli thread.

It's not too late.

 

[bennyc12]

Yeah, that Call of Duty dog is toast.

I guess my point is that hopefully there are more sophisticated ways of eliciting an emotional reaction.

I personally agree with you--I'm not a huge fan of overused tropes. Games like Journey or Proteus, that attack the senses to achieve an emotional response are more appealing to me.

I guess what I'm looking for is to have an emotional response, and not know why I'm having that emotional response. But I think to some people, that type of response comes from these girls you have to protect, or a dog dying, etc.

 

[banjo5150]

It works, thus they do it.

Wait until CoDog dies, you will cry like a baby.

CoDog that is hilarious.

 

[shinobi602]

They're fun games and that's all that matters to me.

 

[EvB]

Elizabeth is a little girl?

Take yourself down to the station and turn yourself in.

 

[Shosai]

All art is emotionally manipulative, by definition. Games are only the most recent medium to do this on any consistent basis

 

[Vic]

My Little Sister Can't Be This Emotionally Manipulative.

lol

 

[Ostinatto]

That monster in The Last Guardian is fucking screwed.

please no, i just... cant

 

[EmCeeGramr]

Modern Warfare 3 blew up a little girl with brown hair:

Mass Effect 3 and Heavy Rain boldly bucked this trend by having it be a little boy who is put in danger and/or dies.

 

[Canis lupus]

Yep, I really loved the father/daughter relationship in the Walking Dead, I really cared for Clementine.