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Editor's note: I've never been afraid while playing a game. I've felt tension, sure, and some creepy-crawlies certainly startled me over the years. But no game has instilled fear in me. Gerren must be fearless — he even takes a shot at Shoe! Gerren asks the community what scares them in games. -Jason
With the recent release of Alan Wake (it came out Tuesday in North America), I'm starting to read and hear something I've noticed quite a bit in the gaming community before but never completely understood: "Oh, man, that game really had me scared!"
Really? "Scared"? Experiencing fear while gaming is one of the few things I've never been able to completely relate to with other gamers. Maybe it's a difference in my understanding the word. Maybe I haven't played the "right" games.
Maybe being a skinny, calamity-inviting person has taught me a healthy fear of things nondigital. Like linebackers. Except if they're from Michigan. Those you can pretty much dance around and run off a field carrying a Rose Bowl trophy as they sulk back to Ann Arbor. (Sorry, Shoe. Five-year-old cheap shot.)
I've never really felt scared while playing a game. I've felt tense, sure. But I've had many tense moments in Madden NFL (a crucial play for a win), Mario (a hard-to-master platforming section), and Mass Effect (a fight my squad survived by the skin of our teeth), and I'm not sure we associate fear with any of them. But I haven't exactly walked away from a Silent Hill or a Resident Evil or a F.E.A.R. with a need to keep the lights on at night or having my skin feel like it's crawling.
Movies, however, have evoked fear from me. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors made me scared to go to sleep. Sure, I was only 6, and my mom had no business taking me in that movie theater, but still. Candyman made me scared to repeat a particular word in the mirror. And Boyz n the Hood made me scared of losing scratch-off Lotto tickets. Damn, Ricky!
I'm scared of heights. As such, I'm scared on planes — mostly of crashing. I've seen up-close the damage lightning does, therefore I have a very respectful fear of it. I'm deathly afraid of the lineup of shows on BET.
But I'm not getting it from video games. And I want to know why. So I'd like to ask members of the community what video games scared them and how. What is well-crafted fear in a game? Is it simply the tension, or is it something else I'm missing out on?
Gerren LaQuint Fisher is creeped out by many things, including the picture of Sackboy in EGMi. He also contributes to The Game Reviews, tweets @gerrenlaquint, and runs a blog called The Underscore