No Tears for Mario

Over on ihobo today, a follow up to an older piece. Here’s the introduction:

Could you ever be moved to tears over the plight of Mario or Princess Peach? Could a game system be designed that moves you in this way? I maintain that it cannot.

Back in December 2008, I wrote a piece entitled A Game Has Never Made You Cry, in which I first advanced my claim that – tears of frustration not withstanding – videogames have only ever made people cry via their fictional elements (cut scenes and the like) and never via their game systems. I recently tweeted a few comments along this line and attracted some interesting counter arguments that encourage me to update my argument.

With thanks to everyone on Twitter who commented on this subject. You can read No Tears for Mario over on ihobo.com.