The GameOn Magazine Issue 61 | Page 6

Articles The Watcher The Watcher This article is part of our very special and super spooky Halloween collection. We hope you enjoy all our terrifyingly appropriate content! By Ryan Davies I ’m really not very good with scary games. For me, the sense of relentless dread and horrible jump scares aren’t particularly exciting. I mean, they certainly get my heart pumping - but in a ‘my body wants me to survive this’ kind of way, not really the ‘this is so much fun’ way. So as you’d expect I tend to steer well clear of things like Outlast, Slender or Alien: Isolation. Well... that’s only half true. While I sure as hell wouldn’t want to play those kind of games alone, and I’d probably put up a fight if I had to play them in the presence of others, I do happen to thoroughly enjoy watching other people play horror games. I’m not sure if that makes me some kind of low-level psychopath, but I’m very happy to admit it. When watching someone play, much of the pressure is taken Issue 61 • November 2014 off. That direct feedback from game to player is removed, I don’t have to focus on the screen anywhere near as much as while playing. Obviously, for many people that close connection with the on-screen action is what makes scary games so appealing; movies can generally only provide a sense of dread or simple fear, games on the other hand can make the player feel truly vulnerable. I suppose it’s that vulnerability, that feeling of genuine mortal terror, that I like to avoid. Watching means I can enjoy the design and core elements of the game without the everpresent piss-your-pants fear. It’s more than that though, and this is where it gets a little weird. There’s a very strange satisfaction that comes with actually observing someone play a scary game. Reactions are priceless and the tension buildup is often hilarious to see. It’s especially gratifying when the player is just as useless with horror games as I am. It’s not just me though, is it? I feel pretty safe saying that most people get some level of enjoyment out of seeing and hearing people cower while playing games. The millions of YouTube videos titled ‘my girlfriend screams... due to Slender Man’ or ‘nan plays Amnesia’ are a testament to that fact. It worries me, if I’m honest, but I just find watching my friends scream far too funny to stop. Let me share a recent example with you. My friend Ed and I planned to play Alien: Isolation together, swapping the controller every time we died (which we figured was inevitable). He ended up playing 6 • GameOn Magazine