Try watching horror when you're pissed off about something. The jumpscares become therapeutic.

I have to disagree Jo, you need to play P.T. to understand the real horror game.

@Delta Pangaea: Great point. The unknown is only scary until you know it, or see it as a bag of HP. Extra-Credits has good thoughts on this. Mainly you shouldn't ever give your "creature" hit points in a horror game. This is where most go so very wrong.

I do this myself. though for a different reason. I like to be able to see what Im doing and not walk into a wall constantly thinking its a hallway because of how dark it is thank you very much...I like being able to see!

Lotta' people here seem to be ignoring that Horror is subjective, and there is no one True Horror take makes everyone curl up in the fetal position. Some people have nightmares about IT, while others think Tim Curry is hilarious.

Also, Five Nights at Freddy's sucks, stop talking about it. :P

Don't worry Jo, I do the same thing in the Bioshock games.

that

From my view, action doesn't make horror scary. Horrors need more things to imagine, rather than put player in hard situations.

I played Amnesia and Outlast. They don't scare, they mostly annoy you in "scary" places. Because you have to sit&wait, run&hide, "die&repeat until you get where you have to run to survive" stuff. But part with mad dismembering doctor in Outlast was quite cool, I must say.

Filthy console casuals. Just play Underhell or Nightmare House 2 on PC. Or Afraid of Monsters or Cry of Fear. Bring brown pants.

so someone never played outlast or 5 nights at freddy's?

scary movies or scary games are not that fun for people who doesn't get scared, it's as simple as that
If you don't get scared with games, don't try games that should be scary, you'll miss the point and a lot of your time

@Ewig Custos: Doesn't matter when you still can apply that mentality on other things, instead of being killy, you become sneaky.

Either way, when one taps into that state: fear is then nothing.
Yes, I am calling you a scrub.

Five nights at Freddie's! Come on, Jo!

Your objective simply changes from elimination to evasion, and you utilize the mechanics of the game to do that as efficiently as possible.

Like others have said, a large part of enjoying horror as a genre is allowing yourself to be scared. Getting in the mood, as it were.

Re: not having weapons in a horror game.

It doesn't necessarily make things scarier. If you're stuck enough in the gaming mindset, you end up ignoring the aesthetic and atmosphere. All of the enemies and obstacles become nothing more than programmed patterns for you to analyze and exploit.

Well, to be fair to her, the skull seems to completely ignore the brightness-setting (I'm guessing someone messed up the code)
So, the only way to actually follow the instructions is to make the surroundings match the skull's shade.

Silent Hill shattered memories also lacks weapons. You have to escape the monsters. Also the monster are different depending on how the player plays the game.

If you really don't get scared, you're not playing the right games. Try Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Outlast or Five Night at Freddy's.

Five nights at Freddies is the reason why i no longer play games at midnight.

I got more tense playing Dark Souls than any 'scary' game because there was consequences, and not being the focus, there was contrast for it.

If your only consequence for losing is an ear-rending jump-scare, then you've got startling, but not scary. Try again.

Jo, I reccomend The hit indie game Five nights at Freddie's! On steam. We as fans challenge your gamer status and beat that game! All 6 nights and play in the dark. We eagerly await your response.

Try Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Having no weapons at all to deal with those hit points really does wonders to that "gaming" mentality.

Silent Hill games are all about getting in the mood, otherwise they would be really boring. That's why the ones starting from 5 are really bad Silent Hills or not Silent Hills at all.

Well, it -is- harder to see the skull the brighter you make it.