Emotions are everywhere these days. You can’t walk down the street or hop on the bus without seeing some emotions, and now they’re in games and all. So much so in fact, that there will now be a games awards show entirely devoted to emotions like sad and happy and angry. Nope, despite the curious name, the Emotional Game Awards are a real thing, and all the emotions will be happening February 2016.
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Founded by videogame and virtual reality researcher Erik Geslin, the EGAs will celebrate the accomplishments of games and developers that have brought out strong emotional reactions from players. Geslin stated in a press release that his hope is that “Video games causing rich and complex emotions – empathy, compassion, sadness, love – will be rewarded.”
Geslin outlined his rationale for launching the awards show, “The Emotional Games Awards are the first award given to video game companies and professionals in our industry to specifically reward the quality of the emotions produced in this medium. This is a fantastic opportunity to move the lines!”
Developers from Ubisoft Canada, Rockstar Games, Ubisoft Montpellier and Frima Studio will be judging the event, which is being hosted by Laval 3D Interactive, the games and interactive media department at the University UCO Laval in France.
The EGAs will be accompanied by a 40-hour emotional game jam – which, again, could use some rewording – that will be livestreamed, apparently to encourage the development of emotional games.