Lazy Sunday, Part Two
Sep. 15th, 2002 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thistlechaserA number of hours of playing later...
I can almost see how mentally unstable kids end up killing themselves when some long-played character of theirs dies. I've only been playing this a week, but I noticed something odd about myself:
One of your characters learns "Flee" early on, a move that lets you escape a battle. If one of your party members dies, the body is shown on the ground. When you use Flee, the alive characters run off, but the body is left behind. Last night this started bothering me. Once you've escaped the battle, the dead character is back with the group again, but the idea of running off and leaving it behind with the monsters you weren't strong enough to kill really ... well, it just sits wrong with me. And so that made me wonder about the connection I've made with these characters. To me, being connected with a MUSH character you've been playing daily for months and months and months seems somewhat reasonable. But to get attached to characters you're "playing" (not even playing, not anywhere near as close as when you're a MUSH character) for just a week? If semi-stable me gets attached so quickly, how do these younger, less stable kids feel after playing some EQ character for a year?
I'm certainly not saying that all games are bad or that all RPGs should be banned or anything, I'm just enjoying seeing my own reaction to these things.
Oh, and maybe it was how late it was last night, or maybe it's a sign that I am indeed less stable than I think I am, but I almost cried at the scene where Tidus and Yuna were in the pond together, the nighttime sky above. I've heard from others that they cried at the ending of the game; I don't cry at movies, so I'm really hoping I don't cry at the end of some silly Final Fantasy game. I probably will though, and I'll probably be happy I did. :)
I can almost see how mentally unstable kids end up killing themselves when some long-played character of theirs dies. I've only been playing this a week, but I noticed something odd about myself:
One of your characters learns "Flee" early on, a move that lets you escape a battle. If one of your party members dies, the body is shown on the ground. When you use Flee, the alive characters run off, but the body is left behind. Last night this started bothering me. Once you've escaped the battle, the dead character is back with the group again, but the idea of running off and leaving it behind with the monsters you weren't strong enough to kill really ... well, it just sits wrong with me. And so that made me wonder about the connection I've made with these characters. To me, being connected with a MUSH character you've been playing daily for months and months and months seems somewhat reasonable. But to get attached to characters you're "playing" (not even playing, not anywhere near as close as when you're a MUSH character) for just a week? If semi-stable me gets attached so quickly, how do these younger, less stable kids feel after playing some EQ character for a year?
I'm certainly not saying that all games are bad or that all RPGs should be banned or anything, I'm just enjoying seeing my own reaction to these things.
Oh, and maybe it was how late it was last night, or maybe it's a sign that I am indeed less stable than I think I am, but I almost cried at the scene where Tidus and Yuna were in the pond together, the nighttime sky above. I've heard from others that they cried at the ending of the game; I don't cry at movies, so I'm really hoping I don't cry at the end of some silly Final Fantasy game. I probably will though, and I'll probably be happy I did. :)
