> Maybe thoughts like these are what you get for having watched "Tron" at an impressionable age. Or perhaps my mind is currently warped from playing "Metal Gear Solid" last night until my eyes went weird.
>
> I always imagine, if those little pixelated game characters had little private lives, they'd be in there thinking "Oh DAMN, I'm being played by that MORON again who gets me killed fourteen times a minute and they haven't even worked out how to get off level one yet."
>

That's the kind of thing the designers *pray* that you'll think. They want you to get fully into the game and have an immersive experience, feeling emotion rather than just a "yay, next level" thing. So that's a perfectly normal feeling, and the sort that promotes fanfiction. OK, so maybe it's not all that normal.

But it is fairly natural. A lot of characters are designed to be realistic, at least in part. Massive RPGs and character-driven stories definitely create an emotional attachment with the stars. I for one have felt sorrow for, laughed at, and laughed *with* my on-screen counterparts.

Now that graphics are what they are, things can look realistic, but real characters have been around for ages. I remember feeling sorry for baby Mario in Yoshi's Island. Then I remember hating the whiny little brat. Sacrificing a Yoshi in Super Mario World, just to gain more height from a jump. Simon's "AAAAUURGH!" in one of the Castlevanias (IV, I think). Terra poinging after a battle. All emotional moments.

What are (would) they (be) thinking as you play? What happens afterwards? What about the characters currently off-screen? If you find yourself thinking those sorts of questions, the people behind the game did a good job. You won't just forget about it in a hurry.

Oh, and Tron teh bets gaem (fiml).

Mat"going to get lynched for that fanfiction comment"thew