“I don't want to play a game that makes me cry!”

by General Vagueness , The Vault of Sass, Saturday, May 04, 2013, 15:25 (4318 days ago) @ kapowaz

Curious. It's almost as if it was in answer to a question about that moment that a lot of gamers of my generation probably would say elicited that type of reaction: Aeris’ death in Final Fantasy VII (coincidental aside: I'm meeting the guy who made this in an hour, potentially to buy it — I'm a bad person).

I think Joe shows a kind of reticence towards certain types of emotion that I think reflects the gender balance in game production today. My girlfriend reads a lot of books, and a number of them have included incredibly poignant, emotional and (dare I say) tear-jerking moments — I have to take her word for it as I've not read them yet myself, but anyone who's read The Book Thief will doubtless be able to corroborate this. As with Aeris’ death, did these moments detract from the experience of the story, or did they help paint a picture with a wider range of emotions? I'm wondering if a male-dominated videogame industry is stopping us from exploring this kind of emotion.

What is this and why are you comfortable putting it in this post? It looks like you're saying guys can't appreciate sad things or sad moments in stories, or that "normal" guys can't, which seems weird next to you talking about this lack of balance in the industry. It's so jarring it almost seems like a joke or a troll.
For the record, there probably is some genetic male-female difference in typical and average emotions and what's appreciated, but I don't think that completely or even mostly accounts for this, and I generally like my entertainment to not be sad (very rarely do I like it like that, in fact), but that's me.
super late, I know, but I think this is a worthwhile conversation (not just about this comment, the whole thread)