The visual and audio effects in this encounter are so well done that it raises goose bumps, causes chills, increases my heart rate, and makes me want to turn on the lights throughout the house.

It’s the only game I’ve ever played that gave me this response, which, I think, is why I still enjoy playing it, five years after its release. And having played through several times, I still have this reaction.

MMOs, on the other hand, give me no problems at all, because they almost never generate the response in the first place. Back in the day, when EQ death meant hours, even days of achievement lost, I was often very jumpy and stressed while playing, and much adrenalin got pumped. Fortunately, as MMOs developed into a more mature, rounded form of entertainment and “death penalties” receded into history, it became possible to play in a relaxed state.

If something “bad” is going to happen in a MMO now, I just let my character die and start over. It’s much less stressful and apparently it’s better for my health too. Once you know that nothing of any significance is at risk, your glands stop reacting in their primordial way and gaming becomes relaxing rather than “thrilling”.

Very, very great improvement in my book.

It’s important to have a rhythm to the action that allows players to catch their breath, and to give them a refuge where they can talk, flirt, brag, make friends or fall in love in comfort and security (producing those anti-stress hormones that counter cortisol damage).

Shooters are all about “fight or flight”, but even they stage the action in rounds and have a chat room or lounge to hang out in between matches. Consider that before designing the Dungeon o’ Death to offer non-stop action for hours on end.

Professional sports, books, movies, video games… all of these media are entertaining precisely because they’re immersive, and they’re immersive because they invoke real physical reactions and real emotion.

Otherwise, they’re not engaging, and they’re not fun.

I never play video games to relax anymore, because I find they tire me out, more than anything. All that emotion comes at a price.

It’s quite intuitive to think that an experienced gamer will become calloused and desensitized to certain things (“Oh boy. Another goomba, I’m terrified”), without ever suppressing the subconscious reactions. They may be hard to scare, but once you scare them, they still become genuinely afraid.

Course, just because players are capable of thinking through those ingrained responses doesn’t remove the responsibility of developers to be conscious of what they’re doing. Blizzard’s actions were rather negligent here. Especially since a consent popup would’ve avoided the entire problem.