The Issue With the Term 'Emotional Experiences' (Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and Journey)

*Spoiler for Brothers at 5:30, but come on - if you can't see what happens in that game coming from a mile off then you need help.

In the fifth episode of Writing On Games, I examine the issues with constant use of the term 'emotional experience', and the importance of developing more meaningful critical language within the world of games. I commit the cardinal sin of admitting and explaining my dislike of Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons. I talk about how much I enjoy Journey. I talk about how much of a weirdo I think David Cage is. I utter the word 'Fahrenshite'. I am not proud of this.

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Footage borrowed from:
MrVg247
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Gamespot Mobile
SwimmingBird941
Smithsonian American Art Museum
JosPlays
Extra Credits
TheTronicles
GamesHQMedia
EnciclopediaLusa

Thank you so much!

[hoodiesticks]

I think our expectations going into a game have a much bigger effect than you'd think. I approached Brothers with the mindset: "Oh cool, a puzzle game where you control two players at once. I bet I'd be good at that". I had no idea it was trying to be an "emotional experience", I just wanted to master the controls and conquer the game. Because of that, when I accidentally made one of the brothers run into a wall, I thought of it as my fault, not the fault of the game's design, and it definitely didn't have any impact on how I experienced the narrative. Which hit me right in the feels, by the way.

Ironically, if I'd known it was trying to be this tear-jerking "emotional experience", I probably wouldn't have felt any emotions, much like Hamish.

[Eclipsedjdi]

I think you're missing the part of the game that is meant to be emotional. Brothers is my favorite game so I might be a bit biased but the emotion of the older brother dying did not come from the narrative, but from the mechanics of the game. As the player you spend the entire game with two characters, one with each side of the controller, so much so that it is muscle memory. So at the very end of the game when you only have the little brother left you are face with a section where you must swim to get across to your home. Up to this point every swimming section in the game the younger brother would rely on the older brother to carry him across. I personally found myself stuck on this section for a goo 45-60 seconds as I just could not figure out how to progress. I'm literally getting goosebumps as I type this. The realization that I had to use the trigger normally reserved for the older brother conveyed something to me that could simply not be performed in any other story telling medium, and that moment is what brought me to tears, not the actual death of the brother. That single button press conveyed so much that I can't imagine anyone not being moved by it. This is the only video that I have watched that I was disappointed in, but not because Hamish(hope I spelled that correctly) disagrees but because it seems he has missed the point entirely. Hamish is so intelligent and the points he makes in his videos are so well thought out and well- worded that I feel like I may even be wrong but I just can't fathom not having a moving experience with this game. Perhaps the struggles with the controls disconnected him from getting attached or ingrained in the characters enough to have a strong reaction like I had but I hope that I have made a point that he views as valid(if he were to read it). Keep up the good work, Hamish!

[matymw]

Guess im an idiot cause i didnt think he'd die

[foreignsgamingtech]

I understand your points, but firmly disagree with how you trash Brothers. The story and the way the mechanics connect the character development with the gameplay in the end is what made this game for me. I get sad and emotional when playing lots of games and Brothers was one of those, but in the end I loved it not because it made me feel emotional, but because of how it handled video games as an interactive medium.

[alicaido]

Is Dark Souls called an emotional experience? Not from what I know. But seeing what happened to Solaire made me feel so, wrong. It didn't feel right, and it made me quite sad. Gwyn made me cry, (yes I'm a manly man), and seeing that kiln be set alight and rekindled made me cry. So much pain and effort went into my experience of that game, and rekindling that flame just made me feel sad. Because yes, I've just saved the world, but fully realising that it doesn't even matter makes my efforts feel redundant. But they still hold meaning. God I love Dark Souls 1.

[hazardousjazzgasm]

Ohmygod thank you so much. I literally agreed with everything said in this video. You are finally the person I've been searching for who understands that emotional does not always equal good or well done. Subscribed.

[annamobrashear]

I guess it would be hard for an apathetic person to fully grasp the whole sibling bond. As an older sister to two younger sisters; one that I’m incredibly close with and another that has passed away, I found Brothers to be so touching. I felt many emotions throughout the experience. Watching them interact with the world around them in their own ways. I didn’t expect the brother to die because the entire time I was controlling two separate parts of a whole.
When the older brother dies I could really relate with the younger brother. His foundation had been crushed and he didn’t have the skill or strength to stand alone. Until he didn’t have a choice.
The last part of the game with the dual controls brought a true grief out of me. I could handle the older brother dying, the younger brother wailing in grief; and eventually burying him BY HAND. But making me stand at the edge of the water not able to swim alone. I was filled with desperation as I walked around searching for another way; when I figured out the solution there was no controlling the tears. Brothers didn’t break me by killing the older brother, it broke me watching the younger brother continue his journey alone. The ending brought all I had experienced together perfectly. I was filled with hope and determination that the younger brother would be okay and support his grieving father through the many lonely years to come.
The game made me very emotional, and I don’t believe that makes me naive.

[HxHDRA]

LMFAO you were so much cruder in the past while somehow sounding even more sophisticated XD

[darkkirby]

So I'm not the only one who thought Brothers was mechanically messy and overly heavy handed? Thank god, I thought I was crazy.

[JaydevRaol]

I finished 'Journey' just last week when it finally got released on PC and absolutely loved it and I was interested in hearing your thoughts on it.

Because even though lot of people already love it there were also a lot of people who I saw online. Who just dismisses it as just another 'Walking Simulator' (I hate that term as much as you hate ther term 'emotional experience' btw.)

So how I was interested to see that what is your take on it. So I am glad that I found this video. 😃

And I am also glad to know that you like 'Journey'. But coming to these videos main subject and what I saw in the comment section.

I haven't played 'Brothers' so I can't really comment on that.

But Yes! I still do totally agree with you that the term 'emotional experience' is shallow, vague and meaningless.

And also about people complaining that you were too harsh on this game. I didn't felt that except for that one line when you said that "Your IQ is in single digit number"

I think it could've been avoided so that people don't feel like that you are attacking both themselves and a game that they really like.

Other than that this was a solid video. And I'm surprised to see that even your older videos were quality content. So thanks a lot for this and keep up the good work!

[FredWallace]

"Gravity" and "Infinity War" spoilers ahead (if you read between the lines).
Like some others, I'm a bit taken aback at your insult of games who didn't see the end of Brothers coming. I'll admit up front that I was surprised, but defend that I am far from stupid.
There are a couple reasons I was surprised. First, even though it may have been an overly depressing game where that ending makes sense, I seldom expect writers to carry through with what feels like the ending the rest of an experience deserves. Take "Gravity", where I expected a much different payoff given the themes I thought the movie was trying to show. "Avengers: Infinity War" also got me, because I honestly didn't expect the writers to have the stones to do what they did. Granted, this is kind of cheating; writers shouldn't be trying to surprise their audience just by writing what's shockingly correct. But it still justifies my surprise.
Secondly, I also viewed the rest of the game as framing for a triumphant ending. "Look, in this shit world, the love these brothers share was enough to make them prevail." That's the much more typical story to tell, and why the end feels like such a turn to me.
So like others said, I get your criticisms. I get that you don't like the game (it's a shame that you don't, since I'm typically in line with your analysis, and can usually use it as a guideline to if I should play games). But I don't think the insults were warranted.

[VodKaVK]

Alright now. So one of the big problems that videogame reviews have is that they sit on the fence between a product feature list and art criticism - much of it degenerated to a cry for better journalism in videogames last year. I agree that is is reductive to say that the game is an emotional experience in a review, but although it is a bit of a cop out, it's as involved as you can get in a review about a game that attempts to hit the sensitive nerve, without spoiling much of the content. You see, if somebody starts talking about a very emotionally shocking part, like you just did towards the end, in a game that I haven't played, let's say Journey or Brothers, I get that part properly spoiled. If not only narratively, but also in terms of the what I will see, hear and control, and perhaps even about the emotions it'll elicit.

That is not to say that your argument isn't right. Yes, of course: that term is reductive. But you assume that reviewers are not as critical as you are, and that's why they use it. And that's just not true.

[hatmangates]

Calling someone stupid (for not realizing Brothers) was unnecessary. It's alienating (and I got it). Not everyone's "genre-savvy".

Totally agree about Brothers in general, though. Hated it, much like how I don't particularly care for Ico/SotC. The ambience and presentation are top-notch in both the latter games, but the infuriating gameplay pulls me out of it, each and every single time. Gameplay is the essence of what separates games from other art, in its duality. It can both enhance and detract from the experience to an insane degree.

[rngwrldngnr]

The add hominim against players is counterproductive.

[kristadisgumundsdottir]

Thank you for making this one. You make a good point. "Emotional Experience" includes way more that sadness. I pretty much had a "emotional experience" with Life is Strange, Master Reboot, Bioshock, Shadowrun :Hong Kong, Metro 2033, Metro Last: Light, Valiant Hearts and Spec Ops: The Line. Even though most of the aforementioned games contain some sad moments, but I felt glad, triumphant, happy, pleased, loved, confused and relief. Maybe sadness and (crocodile) tears make a good selling point ?

[حقايقساده]

Tetris is very emotional to me. All those blocks will be lost to time like tears in rain. At the end of each session, I can’t take it any more and purposefully lose so that the blocks don’t disappear.

[onyxtay]

One of the only games to make me cry had nobody close to me die, it had hardly any story, and what was there was all text.
The game is called Rodina. If you want to avoid spoilers it's $2 on the developer's site for the current version. If you don't mind spoilers then here goes.


You're the only surviving person from a spaceship that was meant to prepare a solar system for your mothership, the titular _Rodina_, and as the last crewmember you are going to prepare this sytem. Later it is revealed you're the only one who could really pull this off, because you are a robot. That wasn't the moment though. Many on the _Rodina_ worshipped you as a god, you are going to save them, and fight off the xeno threat. At one point the head of this new church worshipping "Stroj" (That's you) sends you prayers from his congregation; a mother praying her son will be alright after being beaten for worshipping you; a child asking for a new toy, and thanking you for his dad's new job; a father who has had his family torn to pieces asking he'll have the patience to connect with his alienated daughter. Seeing all these people, opening themselves, and asking for me to help. That made me cry.

The game does other things, the ship building is fun, and the combat is great, but the story was better than all of that.

[samuellevy]

Really liked your point about games lacking a commonly understood set of narrative techniques. Any thoughts on how this has changed in the last two years?

[minch]

ain't nobody shitting on Brothers to ma face!


Anyway, I don't want to say that the narrative in and of itself was incredible, and I don't want to actually say it was an unpredictable storyline. What I want to praise it for is how it conveyed its narrative through its mechanics in a way that neither of your other two examples, missile commander and journey, did. This was in the swimming scene when you had to hold the older brothers action button, which had previously been used to make the older brother hold him up in water and rescue him.

What this did, that the other two didn't do, was re-interpret the mechanic in a different narrative setting. I thought it was great that the final hurdles in the game were things that previously could only have been done with the older brother, and that his strength now lives on through the younger brother. This scene wasn't just a sad scene, but a scene of character development. It is only in this final level that the brothers actually become one, which your interpretation of the mechanics fails to appreciate or recognise, and it is only with the mechanics that this point is driven home. Without the mechanics it would have been the less deep message that the younger brother just grew up a little and can now manage these tasks on his own.

Journey on the other hand? I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would, especially liking the multiplayer aspect with its simple communication system. But whenever I think about it it bugs me. You say that the brother dying in Brothers was predictable? The literal entirety of Journey was predictable! I appreciated that it conveyed its narrative through its mechanics. You say that games have experimented with this idea from the beginning, and sure missile commander did this, but that's about it. Even taking the present into account, this is a really really under-explored idea for games, despite how seemingly important it should be for the medium. What other games do this? Its done a bit in Braid, antichamber, a couple free browser games, papers please, darkest dungeon... I've run out of examples!

Tangent aside, I appreciate that Journey explored this idea, but why on God's green earth did they express the hero's journey mechanically? I'm going to come out and say it, the hero's journey in and of itself has zero artistic merit. It is a structure solely and ubiquitously used for shallow entertainment, used to put the mass audience into a thoughtless, comfy trance so that they can escape from their miserable lives into a vapid state for 90 minutes, scientifically demonstrated to homogenise the audience's minds into a set emotional carousel they've all experienced a litany of times. It is a false expression, a pretence to its true intention, a mitigation of risk, a safe financial investment, a meaningless core of a thousand outfits. Fuck the hero's journey!

So yeah, Journey's another great demonstration of how mechanics can have meaning, I just have too large a chip on my shoulder about the hero's journey to see it as anything more than that. I enjoyed your video (as always) regardless :)

[luigivercotti]

Yeah, as many people seem to point out in the comments, which exact emotions are elicited in a part of a game can vary quite wildly, so a specific description of the experience is only really an average with varying standard deviation