Excellent article. Looking forward the second part. ;)

Although the horror genre in games do not appeal to me especially (although I have played some titles that have a good deal like Clive Barker's Undying, Resident Evil 1 & 2, Alone in the Dark series, etc), after reading your article, I felt like to try Amnesia and Penumbra someday in the future...

I love horror games. I find they get my blood pumping when I play them and keep me on the edge of my seat. Makes me pay more attention to it. However, I am yet to find one that keeps me worried after I have closed it down which I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

I have found that the best horror games are the ones that keep you on edge constantly, not those that are jumpy.

They are by far in my top 3 genres.

What's casual anyway? In the last few years, I heard so many different things about it in the game industry, that everything could be casual, but Dark Souls. *laughs*
Back in 2009 and 2010 the Wii was casual for its many party games, then everyone started to make casual games as well and now everything seems to be casual in some way.
Also, I can't say Dead Space was scary, it had its creepy moments. And if it's survival-horror, you have to expect the game being scary.

Honestly, I don't buy that "Part 1 too scary, let's tone it down"-Thing. But that's probably just me.

Well, I myself consider casual, or to better put it ... Eh .. casualisation (It IS a word, I swear, I just added it to a dictionary!) of a title when it sacrifices something to open up to a broader audience. Diablo 3's massive shift of focus exclusively to items would be a good example - most people actually like it that way and that's the point I suppose.

Well I don't quite get why else would they try to make an action game, I actually did find Dead Space pretty damn scary. I think it uses pretty clever psychological tricks to make you ... nervous.

I hope you'll forgive me the slight thread necromancy. I thought it would be best to keep everything contained in this thread. 8)

Part two of my series of articles about horror gaming is now up here. I talk more about the theme and story of horror stories in general, and how interactivity may be driving the emotional impact of horror even further.

Horror may be about the human spirit, but it arguably speaks more about human folly. When we make decisions about things that we don’t fully understand, unexpected things happen. We close one door and open another, all the while fully aware that we can never, ever see through both. In this way, horror is about blind compromise. It’s a leap of faith within a leap of faith!

Read the full article here: http://www.omgeek.net/2012/06/on-horror-games-part-the-second/