Are games art?  What? 
 
That's basically what you are saying:  are games art?  Can we actually have some emotional connections with video games when the sole purpose of them is to shoot this and jump here and yadda yadda yadda? 
 
Look, I don't give a shit if a game gives me an emotional connection, but the few times that it does, I appreciate it.  Regardless, games are just that:  they are games.  Are we going to argue next that Chinese Checkers needs to have some form of emotion to it?  What about Pac-Man?  I understand that you are talking about modern games, but Hell...look at any of them that can HONESTLY be called a "game" anymore.  It's all interactive experiences.  The point of a game is to spend a bit of time with a challenge, something to work your brain, and then have that challenge be met by someone else.  In turn, multiplayer is popular because of our tried-and-true ways:  we want people to challenge us to excellence. 
 
Nice blog and all, but I think you are asking too much from a medium that doesn't need to deliver emotions.  It simply needs to keep people playing.

I think Matt is purely talking about the story and characters, so yeah, without Jeff and Vinny that connection would still be there.
 
And yeah, the point is that often when you're playing with other people, the atmosphere a game tries to set up is marginalized or even trivialized. Left 4 Dead on the higher 2 difficulties is still pretty intense, but anything Normal or Easy just ends up in us pissing about. And I feel you on the Gears 2 moment, when Dom shot his wife (SPOILERS), it was actually pretty heavy. But it was undermined both by playing with another person AND the fact that Gears of War 2 makes that moment last like 5 minutes before it's back to bravado and bullshit.
 
But for story-driven or atmosphere-laden games, I absolutely prefer to play by myself. Though I can't help but imagining Arkham Asylum, co-operatively, with the other player being Nightwing. Hot damn that would be fucking sweet. BUY ARKHAM ASYLUM SWEEP DAMN YOU.

" @Claude said:

" So, playing video games is kind of like masturbating. "

......No. Most video games use two hands :P. "

way too emotional for me. It's just a game.  You can get involved but at the end of the day..it's a game.

"  Persona 4! Sure, we're not the ones playing the game, but I will be damned to call the Persona 4 cast of characters anything less that totally amazing. Though the actual delivery of their feelings can be overtly Japanese(the game spends a little too much time telling than showing, probably due to it's localization), the characters and situations in the game are just as interesting and heart wrenching as anything in Grand Theft Auto 4. And even though we're not playing the game, we enjoy watching Jeff and Vinny run through it, and we enjoy seeing the way they react to the situations. Persona 4 is probably still a great game when people play it by themselves, but it has flourished into an incredible experience on Giant Bomb, and I personally have a very strong connection to the game, even though I have never played it. "

" So, playing video games is kind of like masturbating. "

Sweep, you say that video games don't allow for us to have emotional connections to games, but you miss a potent example of a video game a ton of people have connected to emotionally that they didn't play at all! On the internet! And on Giant Bomb no less!
The Quick-looks on Giant Bomb don't provide an adequate connection to a game, nor do they indicate if a game might suck you in, and affect you emotionally. But pity! Had you clicked the tab 5 spots to the right on the video bar, you would find a video game that many of us have become emotionally invested in: Persona 4!
Sure, we're not the ones playing the game, but I will be damned to call the Persona 4 cast of characters anything less that totally amazing. Though the actual delivery of their feelings can be overtly Japanese(the game spends a little too much time telling than showing, probably due to it's localization), the characters and situations in the game are just as interesting and heart wrenching as anything in Grand Theft Auto 4. And even though we're not playing the game, we enjoy watching Jeff and Vinny run through it, and we enjoy seeing the way they react to the situations. Persona 4 is probably still a great game when people play it by themselves, but it has flourished into an incredible experience on Giant Bomb, and I personally have a very strong connection to the game, even though I have never played it.

 The typically single-player stereotype has been intensified to a level where empathy with the protagonist can only be truly experienced from the direct perspective of the player. Anyone else in the room can safely be classified as indirect - and therefore less interested or enthusiastic.

" So, playing video games is kind of like masturbating. "

So, playing video games is kind of like masturbating.

oh man i thought sweep was totally going to reveal his secret alcohol addiction 
 
ON TOPIC it's becuz deep down you subconciously want to be a macho manly man. and macho manly mean have no feelings. only farts. actually that would explain your attachment to the gears 2 story also

" less to do with modern design choices and more to do with video games not being inherently designed "

I think it has less to do with modern design choices and more to do with video games not being inherently designed for people to watch from the sidelines. That is all I have to say.

If by: "For a while now" you mean "4 days", then yes, it has been a while since your last real blog.
 
You crazy blog-posting machine.

Sweep: 51% awesome, 49% burger

"  Left 4 Dead, people are supposed to be scared together, instead they end up pissing about.  "

I agree Sweep.  Whenever I am playing a co-op with a friend of mine we usually just breeze through any cutscenes and just want to get back to the action, though sometimes I wish I could take in a game's story by myself, one example being Resident Evil 5.  My friend and I played through the entire game together and generally just had a good time shooting zombie dudes in the face, but I really would have prefered to experience the story of Resident Evil 5 alone.  Whenever I play co-op with a friend, and I can imagine this happens to everyone, you tend to goof off and not really enjoy the game for how it should be.

Its true, that people that play games have some kind of barrier to emotional barrier for gaming (I do not, I cry at anything. I CRIED AT THE END OF REPUBLIC COMMANDO!), which is strange. Games are a medium for telling stories, and games should take advantage of this more. But when playing games with others now, we cannot share that emotional engagement. Left 4 Dead, people are supposed to be scared together, instead they end up pissing about. I played an all nighter of FEAR 2 once, it was shit scary. Then I did it again, a week later, but with my friend in the room, and it became funny. It was very similar to the quick looks, not how its "meant" to be played, but I probably had more fun rejecting the emotional engagement for some laughs. And I hope more games manage to get a balance between emotional engagement, and ability to be appreciated by multiple people at once. I don't mean co-op per-se, I mean a more open way, like sweep wants, to share gaming experiences with others without playing shitty competitive games.
 
THAT MADE NO SENSE. Meh, I can't be bothered to right properly. Haven't blogged since July. I should blog again...but....
 
Anyway, nice blog sweep, I do agree. Very muchly.

Before you erupt into prepubescent giggles, this isn't another blog about Sweep getting drunk. If that's what you were looking for then I advise you to come back on Sunday. 
 

Videogames are, largely for myself, a solo endeavour.

A large chunk stems from social insecurity.

A great example would be the Giantbomb Quick-Looks.