"Emotional Games" means different things to different people. To ME, emotional games are generally story-heavy, because that's something that helps me to become immersed and personally vested. Someone else may get personally invested for different reasons, but it's the compelling story that really brings it for me. ^__^

Did the survey but I'm an over 50 (by a few months) male.

I've yet to play a game that make me emotional, sure I felt happy playing games but that's what games are for, I've never felt sad to the point of tears though. Books and TV shows have made me cry, not movies though. You normally have to accomplish things to advance in a game, I think that sense of accomplishment is greater than any negative feelings I might feel.

Believe it or not that is pretty much exactly what I wrote in response to that question in the survey. :)

I agree with this. Games which make you feel things are much better than those that make you punch things, unless they're combined in a certain way.

Joy is an emotion, as are rage, fear and surprise. So I'm with Psyringe on this one, categorizing games as "Emotional Games" doesn't make much sense to me, unless the opposite category is "Lifeless or Boring Games". ;)

Never heard of "Emotional Movies" or "Emotional Literature" either (unless "Emotional Games" is meant to be the equivalent of romance novels and Hollywood tearjerkers).

Yes, I do. Yes, I filled out the survey. Interestingly, the game that popped into my head first was World of Warcraft. There is a lot of emotion and morality in that game. One doesn't have to play the game for the lore but Chris Metzen and team do a great job on that front.

So then "Emotional Games" is the equivalent of a tearjerker? In any case, if I was a developer who considers his games as art, I wouldn't want them to be labeled "emotional", regardless of whether they have the potential to make people cry or not ...

No, not necessarily a tearjerker. I don't think any games mentioned in this thread fit that label.

But if "emotional games" isn't the right genre label, what should we call it instead?

I'd simply go with "Story-telling Games", and classify the games the same way as other story-telling media do: comedy, tragedy, thriller, horror, etc.

I don't think the term "emotional games" is particularly useful. I have never heard of a category "emotional movies" or "emotional novels" either. I've seen the term "emotional" come up in descriptions, but I haven't seen any attempt to form a distinct category around a term that's so vague and ambiguous.

Emotions aren't completely story-dependent. For example, Journey was a very emotional experience for me, yet there was barely any story at all.

I haven't played "journey", so I can't commend on that. But just like in movies or literature, there are of course experimental ways of storytelling next to the more traditional ones. For example, "Dear Esther" clearly tells a story, it just does so in an unusual, non-linear way.

With games, of course, interactivity becomes a factor, and some games make more use of it than others. Some just tell a pre-written, linear story. Others let the players choose between several pre-written options. Then there are games that let players tell their own stories. All of those _do_ tell stories though.

I remember being very emotional when I first played Persona 4 on a PS2 emulator, I didn't really like the gameplay (those dungeons were just annoying) but I really liked this character called Yukiko. So much so that I felt attached to her (a fictional character) weeks after I finished the game :/

The dig is one of my favs, although it wasn't very well received. I enjoyed its atmosphere.

Survey done! Some emotional games I recall of recent are: Heavy Rain (PS3), L.A. Noire, and Gone Home (although some consider this not a game).

Done.

And from the posts in this thread, it seems i belong to the younger forumites on gog. lol
Thank you all for making me feel young at 30. :P

Same here. I wish that question had a 'neutral' answer included.

While i worded it a bit differently. This was pretty much what i wrote too. :)

I don't think a game has to necessarily be story-heavy to be compelling though, or even be the focus of the game as long it has compelling characters and atmospheric soundtrack. VVVVVV is a prime example, imo. It has a basic story, but the characters and atmosphere are compelling and i felt myself caring about them in the end.