http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/184807/The_Walking_Dead_mirror_neurons_and_empathy.php#.URPitXfeCSo

No dig on any of the guys on GB as the post modems on each of the episodes have been fantastic. but ive always wanted to see a psychologist break it down on how the walking dead creates empathy from players. very interesting read. talks about how the facial expressions on the characters are a huge part of what triggers empathy.

telltale is going to do some amazing things on next gen systems

I agree with this part of the linked article

I think this is one of the reasons why The Walking Dead is so good at eliciting emotions: it frequently shows us the faces of the characters and lets us see all the work put into creating easily recognizable and convincing facial expressions. And so it's not the zombies that elicit dread in us. Instead it's things like the face that Kenny makes when Lee tells him to make a hard decision about his family.

that was definitely what worked for me.

@Slag: absolutely

That's interesting, thanks for sharing.

You know, as a person who works in psychology, but in therapy and not research, it amazes me what we research. I mean this is interesting and it is important. But...well, you know, the game is emotional like movies can be emotional and books can be emotional and so on. It's a media format that creates an emotional attachment with the player through the characters, the story, and the actions that take place. The specifics of how this work is sort of interesting but...I don't know. It's cool that they did this but it seems so unimportant to me despite the fact that I understand why it is important for science and the psychology field.