Loneliness concept

Generally, in the 'Dark Woods' kind of setting, you are alone because there it helps with the atmosphere of fear in scary places. Technically, you are not alone because there are other creatures/spirits in the woods that you're afraid of.

People need interaction, The only time I say being alone would be all right is if you wanted the player to think that they are not alone, simply driving them to fear with strange noises and rustlings in an empty forest.

A concrete example of loneliness is Myst. You are always alone (at least for the massive chunk of it that I played), without any human of monster interaction. While this took the tension of battle and fear out of you, it compensated with a vivid, mysterious world that drew you in.

Then again, there are some that tired of it in a few minutes and quit...
Just a matter of perspective.

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Original post by Humble Hobo Generally, in the 'Dark Woods' kind of setting, you are alone because there it helps with the atmosphere of fear in scary places. Technically, you are not alone because there are other creatures/spirits in the woods that you're afraid of. People need interaction, The only time I say being alone would be all right is if you wanted the player to think that they are not alone, simply driving them to fear with strange noises and rustlings in an empty forest. A concrete example of loneliness is Myst. You are always alone (at least for the massive chunk of it that I played), without any human of monster interaction. While this took the tension of battle and fear out of you, it compensated with a vivid, mysterious world that drew you in. Then again, there are some that tired of it in a few minutes and quit... Just a matter of perspective.

I didn't like Myst and not because I was alone. Myst was horribly boring (IMO) because I hated having to go to one end of the island, flip a switch, walk to the other end of the island, flip another switch, and hope you got the right combination (and if not, go back to step 1 and repeat).

If you want to feel isolated from the world play a game from the Silent Hill series. I found Silent Hill 2 was the best. I remember walking towards the town through a forest and hearing footsteps behind me. If you stopped walking to look back the sound would cease. Cool stuff! I had to take that game in doses.

I think, if one could accurately achieve and instill a sense of "loneliness" in the player, that is, a feeling of isolation or being alone within some space, it could become an invaluable tool. Generally, we, as gamers and designers alike, like to throw around keywords like "immersion". If it fits in with the overall mood of the game then perfect.

However, what you do not want is to instill a sense of loneliness when it is not supposed to be there, for example in something claiming to be MMO or even subtly "multiplayer" where there is a curious lack of "multiple" players. This kind of lonesomeness will lead only to players quitting because they are not experiencing a part of the game world that they are expecting from your game.

Just some things to think about and chew on,

Vopisk

I think loneliness is a very interesting emotion. If the player is lonely most of the time, I think they will pay more attention to the NPCs when there are some, and every little artifact that hints that people used to be around (like in the Myst games).

What made me thought about this loneliness concept was mainly through playing Morrowind single player rpg. Its expected that the world is really vast for the player to explore around, and its also expected that the town should be populated with NPCs. Generally, it is when you are out of town, there will be times when you are travelling long journeys to a certain place, and it is during this long journey that seems a little bit dull and makes you feel rather lonely. But I guess it's probably just my personal preference.

But I do agree that Darkwood settings are meant to be unpopulated and quiet, it makes more sense and it feels more scary in that way in fact. Maybe I shouldn't have used Darkwood as an example.

Though if I would compare the overall experience between Morrowind and Fable, I somehow felt Fable was more fun to play simply because of the amount of social interaction with NPCs during the journey. I never really felt lonely in an MMOrpg game, but it was felt more in single player RPG games. But then again, it could be my own personal preference.