When I was younger, I used to watch these Chinese TV dramas. They would last anywhere from 25 to 50 episodes. If the drama is well done, then each character will have a very distinct personality. Over the span of the entire series, which might take me a few weeks or a couple months to finish, I start to feel like I know the characters. With their little quirks and habits, I feel like I've known them like a good friend. I know how their relationships begin, know pieces of their childhood, and I have "met" their entire families. 

This is a good indicator of a good production. If I can sympathise and care about people on the show, then they must have done something (or everything) very effectively. This is why I can get so obsessed about movies. I now have less time and patience for the 40 episode dramas (not to mention, now that I am older I notice too many patterns in the structure of the stories), but I still believe a good one can suck me in. Some of the shows that I used to enjoy in the early 90s, I can still remember today because I was so emotionally affected by them.

I am blogging about this because it happened again with MGS4. Toward the end, I didn't care about the storyline much anymore. This was due in part to the ridiculously long cutscenes and countless plot twists. However, I spent 20-30 hours in three days on the game, and for these three days, I felt like these in-game characters were my family. It sounds corny but that's probably the best way I can describe it. I dreamt about them, and when I wasn't playing, I was thinking about the characters. For example, after saving Naomi Hunter I couldn't stop thinking about her. Not in a perverted way, but kind of like after meeting a new friend that you really like. You might think about them a lot. That's kind of how it felt.

From these experiences I can understand how some people can't seem to pull themselves away from playing video games and watching TV series, as much as other people tell them to "go out more". Maybe they feel like they are satisfying all their social and psychological needs through connections to these "digital friends". Do they really need a girlfriend when they can care for a beautifully animated girl in the game who happens to be--in their eyes-- perfect? Are they really missing anything? If someone plays video games like I played MGS4 for the past three days, he might convince himself so.

I don't think these relationships can replace real-life companionship of course. Because the real world is not this perfect. People aren't programs and are unpredictable. Those who refuse to come out of their rooms and meet people are missing out on a lot. True, they also save themselves from a lot of drama, but without these supposedly negative aspects of our lives, what do we contrast with peace and harmony? Yes, if I met someone like Naomi Hunter in real life, I would really want to know her because she seems like such a perfect person. But if I did meet someone like her, I would know that she cannot be perfect, and must contain some form of human flaw. 

Those who are truly addicted to video games and such might not be able to make such a clear and definite distinction. Nowadays, with games liek WoW, people assume that it is automatically less troublesome because the computer players are real people on the other side of the world, on the internet. I still think the same problem remains. Those who are addicted to online multiplayer games also avoid a lot of the true human interaction when speaking to their online friends. It's so easy to be anonymous or role-play on the internet; we can never know what is real and what is an illusion.

I wrote this mostly to express how emotionally attached to some of the MGS4 characters these past couple days. If nothing else, this shows the level of depth video games have now achieved to rival or surpass their film counterparts. This is very powerful work, and in small doses it might even be healthy. Who knows, maybe the occassional stimulation of our emotion is a good thing. But not over a prolonged period. That is what I believe.

Any opinions?