drealmer7: Well damn. I really wanted to participate in this survey and thread and then life got crazy and I got carried away and I forgot. I was just now going through my favorited topics to clear them out and came across this. It looks like I missed a lot of good discussion (and the fact that it was a resurrected thread to begin with!) The time of year this came up is just super-busy with the crops and other outdoor work!

I'm a 34male and LOVE love love emotional art. Whether it be a game, book, movie, or tv, if it has heart and sentimentality and touches me, more often than not I will like it simply for the fact that it was able to touch me. I'm highly empathic and can really get into feeling the emotions of others, even in art (though it has to be done well, otherwise I can't feel it and just sit there and go "I see what they're trying to do, but they're failing miserably, I feel nothing.") Almost nothing feels as good to me as a heavy cathartic cry (it can be like a good orgasm!) I also cry at things that I find emotionally moving that a lot of people don't cry at/are surprised someone would cry at, not just tearjerker things, but showings of high-compassion or depths of caring that I can feel that make me teary.

Gah, reading through the thread really makes me sorry I missed it all in action (both initially and on its resurgence!) I haven't played many games that pulled on the emotional strings, I'm going to have to try some of the mentions here someday when I can get my hands on them (I do have To The Moon, but haven't played it.) For me, Planescape: Torment had lots of points with heavy emotion, but I don't actually remember crying during it.

Of course different things do for different people, there's no sure-fire way to say what will do it for someone, but,

Here's a list compiled from this thread for ease of access for those interested in emotional games: Add yours to this thread and I'll update the list.

Amensia: The Dark Descent + A Machine for Pigs
And Yet It Moves
Blackout
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
The Cat Lady
Cognition
Company of Myself
Dear Esther
The Dig
Don't Look Back
Final Fantasy VII
Gone Home
Heavy Rain
L.A. Noire
Limbo
Mass Effect 2
Nihilumbra
Ori and the Blind Forest
Papo & Yo
Penumbra: Overture
Planescape: Torment
Portal
Primordia
Shadowrun: Dragonfall
Shelter
Shira Oka
The Swapper
To The Moon
Valiant Hearts
VVVVVV
The Walking Dead

huN73R: I have to say "This War of Mine" is one of the best emotional games I have played. Although it is a sort of game where the emotional impact reduces the better you get at it, because you normally have to resort to doing despicable things if you make a mistake or two in resource management.

budejovice: TWOM can still get me. I did a playthrough not long ago and things were going just swimmingly. Except I didn't notice the temperature plunge. And Pavle froze to death overnight. Damn... :)

Though mostly these days I keep everyone alive and often don't have to resort to doing those despicable things.

LoboBlanco: A tear ran down through my face towards the end in "The Dig". I actually replayed it just to feel that again.................and "The Dig" does not disappoint every single time.