Analysis of darkness or why we like to be frightened to the point when we cry out for our mommy

A genre of games that has slowly emerged ever since the early 90's has been dubbed the survival horror genre. Made by mixing (in a smart way, of course) light, darkness, monsters, mystery and randomly placed chewed, bloody corpses, its sole purpose is to frighten you.

Fright produces a sudden burst of adrenaline in your body and increases the heart rate, making you feel "alive", if you've felt like a zombie before. For others, it's just the pleasant feeling of having your heart rate return to normal.

Resident Evil started it with its claustrophobic atmosphere and creepy monsters, while Dark Space, Fallout 3, BioShock 2, Metro 2033 and Alan Wake continued it. Whether it is a scary atmosphere or scarier monsters, you'll be brought to the point where you'll have to clean your bedsheets!

Dark Space is set on a spaceship in the future. You're in orbit around a mysterious mining planet and all the ship's crew has been turned into Necromorphs, vicious beasts made from corpses that need to be "systematically dismembered", as the producers put it. Tight spaces, a beautiful and frightening blend of light and darkness and the enemies make your adventure as sick as possible.

Fallout 3 is set in a post-nuclear future littered with mutant creatures, tight spaces (a must have of survival horrors), creepy, awkward or funny characters, nukes, 3-stories tall beasts, dark humour, an exaggerated amount of guts and blood and 50's music.

BioShock 2, the sequel to the award-winning BioShock continues the story of Rapture, an underwater city destroyed by corruption, greed and an army of crazy, genetically enhanced, drug-addicted freaks. You now play as a Big Daddy, an armored behemoth who protects the Little Sisters, girls that collect a substance that gives you superhuman powers. Traverse the flooded chambers fighting off the aforementioned freaks, the shrieking Big Sister and other Daddies.

Metro 2033 takes to a civilization built in the subway tunnels of Moscow in the aftermath of a nuclear war, where you strive to survive psychic monsters, nazis, communists while using darkness as your ally and enemy, a bunch of wacky weapons and a rag-tag group of allies.

Alan Wake tells the story of a thriller novel writer who goes with his wife to a small, quiet town to regain his ability to write. Strange things start to happen as dark creatures attack you in this twilight atmosphere. You have to find out where your wife is and why the events of a novel Alan never wrote are unfolding before his eyes.

So all you need is mystery, monsters and darkness to make a bed-wetting horror game!

Psychology of the gamer

First of all, I'd like to say that the hiatus has helped me gain a better understanding of the ways of gaming and gamers. I have studied conferences, interviews and personal opinions related to games. So, without any other unnecessary words... I'M F*CKING BACK!!!

Why do we like certain games? There must be tens of genres for video games only, but we like only a small select number of them. My studies have shown me that because the brain can only select a limited number of genres to like, it has made a complex way of choosing them based on subconscious factors, active preferences and personality. So I've divided gamers into 3 large categories: "liberals", "thinkers" and "socialists".

NOTE: the names I've given them have no connection to their political preferences or ties with the academic elite. It's just my political, sarcastic humor.

1. LIBERALS:

The "liberals" can be described as people who want to be as free as possible. They're most likely active in their daily lives (a.i. sportsmen, swimmers, fitness enthusiasts, people that do regular exercise and practice sports); they are the tougher and more popular ones. These people play games that consist in as much action as possible. Climbing walls, fighting endless waves of monsters, swinging your sword, shooting left and right and getting their daily adrenaline rush is what they want. The games they play include GTA games, anything that requires shooting without thinking (Modern Warfare 2) or wildly swinging your sword (God of War III), Prince of Persia, adventure games etc. Also, if the game has horror styles, all the better!

2. THINKERS

The "thinkers" are the cool, calculated people that need their daily food for thought. They need to keep their brains and senses sharp so they play games that require more thinking and calculating. These people (me included) are smart, like to think and probably wear glasses --> geeks or nerds as they are usually called.. the games they like include strategy games, more complex RPGs that involve decisions based on a moral scale and multiple paths to finishing a quest, shooters with tactical parts (Brothers in Arms, Star Wars: Battlefront II or BioShock 2). Luckily, there are already some good games, like Bad Company 2 or Supreme Commander 2, which are already out and many more to come (RUSE and C&C 4). Not to mention the strategy games' expansion into console worlds, with games like Red Alert 3, Halo Wars or Tiberium Wars already out for Xbox 360.

3. SOCIALISTS

Generally the people with a mild personality, who are not fond of overkill or gore. Girls are usually part of this group, along with people that like to socialize with others. Multiplayer online games like WoW, Aion or Guild Wars fit them. But that doesn't mean they won't settle in for the multiplayer components of other games. And let's not forget the Facebook or Yahoo! games.

So we see that there are quite a lot of types of people. But don't get me wrong, a person can always change (I'm an ex-liberal) and some people can be both liberal and socialists, or socialists and thinkers (sometimes my case). In the end, it all comes down to what you want.