September 20^th, 2005 (4:44pm) - Bowen Research, a firm that studies the consumer attitudes and behavior regarding high tech products, consumer electronics, software and web sites, today released the results of a study which states that more than two thirds of the gamers they polled feel that video games already equal, if not surpass, in delivering the emotional impact found in many of the best movies, musics and books.

"It is striking that young people today look at games as an entertainment medium that surpasses or will equal the more traditional things that touch us deeply, like books, movies, and music," says Hugh Bowen of Bowen Research. "Half of all gamers think conveying emotion is extremely or pretty important which suggests that games which can achieve more of this will be extremely popular."

According to the study, Role-playing games (RPGs) evoked the most powerful emotions, but despite the explosive growth of multiplayer online role-playing games in recent years, most respondents still feel it is the single-player role-playing gaming experience that delivers the greatest emotional punch. The next two most emotional genres are first-person shooters, followed closely by action games. Flying games and flight simulators ranked lowest on the emotional scale.

While "competitiveness" ranked as the top feeling conveyed by games, it’s interesting that "honor/loyalty/integrity," "awe and wonder" and "delight" also were mentioned frequently.

Respondents overwhelmingly cited the Final Fantasy series of games from Square Enix as the most emotionally rich games.

***Spoiler Warning *** Final Fantasy VII***

The death of Aeris in Final Fantasy VII was sited by many people, with a number of gamers saying that the scene made them cry.