In many games, mental disorders are very much defined as auxiliary to the characters within the game. They are used to derive a sort of mechanic and are ignored narratively as they relate to character development and seriously dealing with these topics. Games like Amnesia, Don’t Starve, and The Evil […]
anxiety
11 posts
I’m currently writing my dissertation, a process that is simultaneously going better and worse than I anticipated. Writing the dissertation, it seems, brings a lot of my anxieties to the forefront. Finishing the dissertation is symbolic of leaving my program and community, leaving grad school (and my identity as a […]
I’ve been writing about Nevermind for the past couple of years and still I keep coming back to it. Nevermind is particularly intriguing to me because the game combines horror and psychological suspense with biofeedback in an attempt to create a game that could possibly help players manage their anxieties. […]
Last week, I rushed home to Arkansas because my mother was having surgery to remove tumors that had been discovered on her right ovary. Her tests came back with cancer markers, and the mass was growing so rapidly, nearly doubling in size in a matter of days, so we all […]
A couple of days ago I downloaded Prune for iOS at the recommendation of a beloved friend who knows me so well it’s ridiculous and a tad scary. In the game, the player has to shear off branches with the swipe of a finger, an action that alters the direction […]
It’s no secret that Journey is one of my all time favorite games, having extensively written about its brilliant use of silence and its characterization of landscapes. Though it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, I find the entire experience to be relaxing and fulfilling. Whether it’s the cool blues of […]
Right now and for the next few weeks, I’m under a self-imposed ban on LEGO building. I’m moving, so instead of building, I’m dismantling my LEGO models. It’s horrible. Not that I mind the dismantling process, it’s still gives me something to do while watching TV, but dismantling does not […]
Episode 106: This Ashly Burch Interview Is Strange (Right click and save as to download, or find us on iTunes or Stitcher). Or maybe it’s just awesome! Who knows, really? What we do know is this: we talked Life Is Strange, Adventure Time, voice acting, writing, mental illness, and we even got to […]
(We were asked by a friend of the site to run this personal essay, which we present here anonymously at the author’s request. Warnings for difficult subjects like sexual abuse and depression apply.) I was sexually abused at thirteen years old. The experience left me so damaged that I wasn’t able to […]
Last week, I reviewed the first hour of Flying Mollusk’s Nevermind, which mostly meant I worked my way through the training session and a bit of the first real part of the game. In my initial gameplay, I was introduced to some heavy possible directions for the narrative: an alcoholic mother, […]
Get the new episode! (Right click and save as to download, or hit us up on iTunes or Stitcher) This week, we talked games and mental illness with Philippe A. Ménard, a scriptwriter at Ubisoft Montreal, among other things, who recently held forth on anxiety and depression in gamers at […]