Blog Quest 1: Emotional Contagion

Throughout the history of video games there have been numerous stories, objectives, quests and gameplay us gamers have gone through, judged, ranted, raved about and sometimes even literally flipped shit over (whether you've thrown your controller to the ground or actually through something, flipped some piece of furniture or had the biggest spaz attack in the history of the gaming world). Many gamers can easily recall their favorite characters, most accomplishing quest they have completed, or even their favorite move combo in street fighter, and while its nice and probably means a lot to those players I couldn't care less about that stuff in this blog. This blog is all about the feels guys, all about the feels (no seriously guys its all about the emotional feels you get while playing through a game story and if any of you say you never get emotional while playing a game you all are a bunch of liars because there is no way you did kept calm when that god damn toadstool person told you that princess peach is in another tricking castles in the old Mario games). Now for this blog quest I'm going to focus on one of my favorite game series, Assassin's Creed, specifically the storyline of Assassin's Creed 2 and the two accompanying side games, Brotherhood and Revelations ( this   Storyline seriously destroyed me emotionally, I was invested in this game and its the reason my my blog is called the rants of angry game dev girl and why my friends and brother think I'm the most entertaining person to watch while gaming). 

So I know there are some gamers who have never played any games in the Assassin's Creed franchise ( seriously guys just play them even once they are amaze balls and I love them) so before I explain how this game destroyed me emotional and got me cussed out by my nonna (which means grandmother in Italian) when she was around me while I was playing.

ASSASSIN'S CREED 2 SUMMARY:

So I'm going to be really quick in my summary of this game's storyline and be warned if you haven't played this game there are some serious spoilers below and a great amount of swearing, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!

Ok so you start the games as this guy named Desmond Miles (the game has assumed you played the first game and know what shit has gone down) who is trapped in this place called Abstergo Industries (kinda like a scary research centre run by a bunch of crazies who wanna save mankind by taking over the world, yeah that's gonna play out well. Oh by the way this group is called the templars). So this guy Desmond is being forced to go into the past via memories using some machine called the Animus by these crazies and is rescued by this blonde spy working for the Assassins (yeah thats the group these templars are fighting with) named Lucy who takes Desmond away from this crazy operation only to make the poor guy go memory surfing in their own Animus (poor guy doesn't even want to be involved in this craziness but sucks to be him right?) to find some thing called the apple of eden, which is some sort of mystical shit that has to do with some people named Adam and Eve in some futuristic place called eden (sound familiar anybody). 

Now Desmond (the poor unlucky bastard) has to shift through one of his ancestors named Ezio Auditore (who is by far the most loved Assassin of all the games cause he is just so freaking awesome its not only funny). Now Ezio is this suave, rich, Italian, womanizing, playboy in Renaissance Italy who is all about causing trouble and having fun, especially with his ladies friends, who surprising has strong family values (with is nice I guess). Now this cocky asshole has his comfy, posh life ripped out from under him when a great big bag of dicks named Rodrigo Borgia orders the execution of his family cause Ezio's dad found out and tried to stop Borgia's plan to capture as much power for the templars (who are a bunch of power hungry jerks who kill whoever gets in their way). So with his father, older and younger brother dead, his mom an emotional distraught vegetable, and a homeless, slightly traumatized sister, whats a party boy to do, why follow the Italian way and get revenge on the dumb asses who messed with his family (but he can't even do that properly). Desmond, playing as Ezio in Ezio's memories, looking for the mystical object, is set on a path of murder, revenge and mystery (which is pretty cool for a story line even though it spanned over 3 damn games making all of us wait for the continuation of the story in the next god damn game). 

THE FEELS THIS GAME MAKES ME FEEL AND WHY I SHOULD NEVER PLAY THIS GAME AROUND MY NONNA

Now when I play games with intricate stories its usual for me to get emotionally invested in the game, but with Assassin's Creed 2 it was a million times worse. I was so emotionally invested in this game and the two storyline continuing games, Brotherhood and Revelations, that I was literally emotionally wrecked and I'm pretty sure that's why I still have yet to finish my last mission because I'm still too pissed to continue. Now at first I was kinda sympathetic with Desmond, I mean this poor guy is trust into this secret war and expected to find some apple for both sides, one of with is seriously crazy and I'd actually be worried if they existed in real life. However after going through the first few missions with Ezio where he is being a family oriented, shit disturber my affections for Ezio grew to out match my Desmond feels, I mean come on who wouldn't like a revenge bent, punk with a smart mouth and snarky attitude to match.  Now this game had made me feel so many feels over the span of playing it, but I think my emotional wreck of a journey began when Ezio's family home is ransacked and his brothers and father are thrown in jail. While this isn't that emotionally ruining until Ezio's dad tells him to go to a friend who can help save them only for you to find out this "friend" is a dirty lying scum bag who betrays the Auditores and is one of the bag of dicks who are responsible for your family's death (what's worse is that Ezio's younger brother is a young kid and they hang the poor kind to death). This scene was the start of my emotional journey because it not only pulled at my heart strings cause they killed a poor innocent kid for no reason but also because after all the trouble you had to go through to save his family they still die just as you are about to save them. I think I literally filled shit and swore my vengeance (and this is was for some made up game family who literally had no impact on my life, Ubisoft you are doing something right guys) and my reaction when it happened was something close to the images below:

Yeah thats right I was so emotionally invested that I swore revenge on a fictional character (this is the point where my brother decided that I am the most entertaining person to watch play games), oh but it didn't stop there no you have to escort your emotionally scared mother and terrified sister (who are so useless in the endeavour) out of the city while the guards are trying to hunt you down like rats in a basement. So after declaring his vendetta (mine too), you start Ezio's journey of vengeance which leads you down a path of surprises, murder and betrayal, which rather than writing out my extensive amount of feels that will take like 6 pages the pictures below will explain:

 Yeah guys I had so many spaz attacks while playing this game because of the story of Assassin's Creed 2, literally every time I discovered a new person involved in the death of the Auditores I would be come a giant ball of anger and depression,which only fuelled my vendetta. This game was so good at drawing me in emotionally, I think its one of the reasons why I love this game so much, that and because while I was playing my brother or one of my friends were with my and my enraged ranting and profanities produced some of the most entertaining conversations ever. However the kicker of the game was definitely the pure unadulterated it made me (and a bunch of other gamers I know) feel towards Rodrigo Borgia (I hate that god damn Motherf***ker SO MUCH YOU DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND!!!!!!). Every time you fight this dick he manages to get away thus continuous ruining your plans for vengeance which drove me to the point of actually swearing in italian that I wasn't even aware I subconsciously remember (I use to be fluent in italian when I was little but then I started reading and watching tv in English and it all faded away) which got me cussed of by my nonna (half in Italian, half in English) since she was over when I was playing and overheard my excessive swearing when Borgia gets away for the first time (so in case you were wondering I believe I said in italian something along the lines that 'I would ripe that asses guts out of his f***king stomach and put his head on a pike' but in my defence I was so pissed that this asshat got away that I think I had a mini freak out). My feels during this ranged from extreme anger to murderous psychopathic tendencies.

Now when I finally thought that I was nearing the end of the emotional rollercoaster  that was my journey threw this game, I finally thought that I was going to get my revenge on the ass that is known as Rodrigo Borgia, who later becomes a god damn pope, but thats where the game locked me in emotionally attached shackles when it denied me my kill at the end of the game, giving you the slight hope that you will be able to finally kill the man you have spent the whole game trying to track down and kill in the next game. My emotional rollercoaster was far from over spanning through 2 other games, never letting me fulfill my one true desire even going as far as stealing my kill from me. Now the only thing left for me to do at the end of the emotionally wrecking journey was to curl up in a ball and cry.