Nevermind, and the golden age of horror video games

I'm a big fan of horror games, and I've been playing them all the way back to when Doom came out in 1993, which seemed to marry violence and horror so uncompromisingly that it broke so much ground and opened the way for an influx of other games that would stir moral panic throughout the political landscape and society.

Horror in video games has since come a long way with franchises like Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil, Silent Hill and FEAR delivering unique elements and atmospheres that would immerse the player in their virtual environments... and scare them shitless of course.

There have been communities of people who have developed horror games independently, such as the SCP Foundation, who have made some truly terrifying short-games and simulators. I've seen other games such as The 4th Wall surface on Xbox 360 (a point in my life where I was addicted to buying indie games online) and take on more surreal and abstract approaches to an unnerving experience. There have also been puzzle games associated with horror like Limbo.

Limbo, 2012

The 4th Wall, 2012

There have been more recent iconic horror characters like the mythical Slender Man - originated as an internet meme created by Something Awful forums - who have also made it into video games.

Slender: The Eight Pages 2012

What I'd really like to turn attention to, however, is Nevermind. It seems that we're in the golden age of video game horror now. I would argue that we have been for some time already these past few years, but as Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have produced products like the Wii, Xbox Kinect and Playstation Move, horror games have approached an interactive milestone in sight.

Wii Vitality, which was unveiled several years ago by Nintendo, met with such ambivalence from the audience that the company themselves weren't too enthusiastic to go ahead with it. Despite this, we are now seeing horror games use similar technology to learn your fears and use them against you.

Nevermind from Erin Reynolds on Vimeo.

I'm not surprised that this is the work of an interactive media student, but here is proof that a horror game does not simply aim to scare everyone, but work as a tangible benefit for those with stress issues and anxiety. Basically, this is a game that uses bio-feedback in order to challenge the player. The more scared you get, the harder the game becomes. It has little to do with manual dexterity, but how you learn to control your fear. Granted, it presents quite an extreme form of confrontational therapy, but the goal is noble. And optional.