Our minds are what make us who we are and as humans, we’re the only known beings in existence that have an understanding and control of both the mental and physical we've come to an age where almost any physical ailment is curable.
Each day medical advancements are made to eradicate disease and bring forward innovation to help the disabled to become abled. However one thing that is still a mystery to us, is our minds. Our mental health is something we need to take seriously. All forms of media have tried to express mental health in some capacity Books, Films and Television, Books, Film and Television, both fiction and nonfiction have been used as tools to deliver messages and stories. And through it we can relate and/or empathise with those who do suffer from depression, anxiety and a slew of mental health problems. In this episode of the Sidcourse, we’re going to look at depression and mental health to see how games and gaming can or could help.
Before we begin we have to get the formalities out of the way. There won't be any major spoilers in what I say, but there may be some visual ones. You can see the games that will have some kind of spoilers here If this is something that's going to bother you, I'd recommend turning off the video. A secondary warning for those who find the topic of depression, anxiety suicide and mental health distressing. If this is something that upsets you I would recommend turning off the video, and a tertiary warning for those who aren't open to discuss the idea of people opening up and discussing their personal issues or stories regarding mental health. This is a video series about discussion, sharing ideas and thoughts. I'd highly recommend keeping an open mind when watching, but if that's something that you're unable to do I would recommend turning off the video. Depression affects over 10% of the world's population. It's been referred to as a chemical imbalance in the brain, as an emptiness in the soul. At the time of writing this, we don’t know exactly what it is, but we know it’s effects.
These can range from mild to extreme and our mental health is an integral part of our human experience As someone who’s suffered from depression since the age of 9 or 10, ranging from low moods to self-harm and suicide attempts I know this isn't something that can be cured, however it is something that can be managed in most cases One of the worst parts of suffering from depression is that the people around you who aren't suffering in the way that you are... ...just don't see it. It's invisible Receiving comments like “snap out of it”, “get up and do something” and so on are just not helpful. Which leads to the person in question feeling worse for not being able to express or explain their feelings. Symptoms of depression generally include continuous low mood or sadness, feeling hopeless and helpless having low self-esteem, feeling tearful guilt-ridden irritable and intolerant of others, having no motivation or interest in things, finding it difficult to make decisions not getting any enjoyment out of life, feeling anxious or worried and/or having suicidal thoughts, or thoughts of harming oneself. If you feel that you are suffering from these symptoms for a prolonged time I and the medical community as a whole would highly recommend speaking to your GP immediately Many people wait a long time before seeking help.
The sooner you see a doctor, the sooner you can be on the way to recovery. The effects of Depression have a huge range which can even lead to long spouts of self-isolation. Japan’s been dealing with a declining population issue for quite a while. Numerous articles and studies have been done on the topic. With young men and women in the nation who have, to put it bluntly; checked out of life. Researchers have developed a specific set of criteria, which include; spending most of the day and nearly every day confined to home, marked and persistent avoidance of social situations, social withdrawal symptoms causing significant functional impairment, and no apparent physical etiology to account for the social withdrawal symptoms. The people who are diagnosed with these symptoms are labelled Hikikomori. Which loosely translates to “pulling inward” or “being confined”. This is something that affects mostly, but not exclusively, young men who face huge pressure in school and in their careers. And this isn’t an issue that is exclusive to Japan. Cases of Hikikomori can be found all over the world. In an article on the Financial Review, Ryan Avent asks “Why young men are giving up work for full-time gaming?” In it, he interviews a number of people to discuss their gaming habits, as well as their outlook on life.
Some of the interviewees are described as people who work few hours, if at all, just enough to buy the games that they want, and pay the basic bills. Some are people who’ve had solid careers and find that they’d rather spend their time with games as their luxury than spend it slaving away and having no time for anything else. Even with people that I’ve personally interviewed and spoken to, one of the most common things I’ve heard is “why bother?”. As the generation who grew up in the turn of the millennium they grew up with a blend of Golden age Disney, Cartoon Network, Saturday morning television, 80s reruns, and video games. This is the nostalgic period of our collective childhood which were “the better times”. And now that they’ve grown up, with commitments, debts and an economy that seems fruitless, it’s no surprise that people are giving up on the ideas and dreams we were all told we’d have by this age. Many people that I spoke to are what the Japanese would call Hikikomori. They’re shut-ins. In fact some of my closest friends are just that. Their main interaction comes from playing video games with other people online There is a vast number of people who aren't just giving up on work. They're giving up on life. In a 2012 study by the office of National statistics in the United Kingdom; Suicide is the number one killer of men aged 20 to 49. 26 percent of recorded deaths of men aged 20 to 34 are from suicide, with 13% of men aged 35 to 49 It's also our number one killer of women age 20 to 34 and the third biggest killer of women aged 35 to 49 Suicide is the single biggest killer of men aged under 45 in the united kingdom, with 76% of all suicides in 2014 being men Terminating oneself is an extreme measure, and as someone who's also tried on plenty of occasions: It's no joke.
To some it's a solution to what seems like a never-ending problem. A suicidal person must overcome intense emotional distress to commit the final act. And when they do, it’s because they feel a sense of: burden, emotional pain, escaping negative feelings, altered social world, and hopelessness There have been games that have tried to talk about depression and mental illness. Some come off very unfriendly and in your face about it, which doesn’t help. One game that did it exceptionally well is Infinite Fall’s Night In The Woods. This game follows the story of Mae Bukowkski, a 21 year old college dropout who has returned to live at home with her parents. It’s not common for the residents of Possum Springs to move on to bigger things outside of it’s quaint town, but Mae had the opportunity. Night in the Woods is the coming of age story for 20-30 year olds. Not something that’s all that common as far as entertainment media goes. Coming of age stories were reserved for teenagers and told tales of young people growing up and dealing with the realities of life. But the world has changed. The films and tv shows from the last century are no longer relevant when trying to connect to people who are “coming of age”. We live in times where the dreams of growing up, getting a place of our own, marrying the person you love and settling down no longer exist the way we were told. We live in an age of constant technological innovation. The dreams of generations before us; of working hard and having everything no longer apply. And Night In The Woods is one of the first stories to address the zeitgeist of our modern era. College and university education is overpriced, extremely stressful and has zero promises of a fruitful future. Not everyone is gonna make it and succeeds. And this is why the game was so well received amidst it’s flaws. In filmmaking, there’s a general rule of “show, don’t tell.” Where having exposition that’s quite blatant ruins the story and motivations. And as games being the next stage of creative expression, the rule evolves to “do, don’t show.”Night In The Woods, as a game that didn’t pander to any demographic or show us “hey look at me, this is a game about depression and how it affects people.” It had us do the actions. The game's mechanics are walking and talking. And when you're limited to just dialogue options, It feels honest within its limitations and true to its fleshed out cast of characters. I have a lot of problems with this game, but I can't ignore one of my favorite aspects of night in the woods; It’s portrayal and presentation are magnificent.
We have a very indie illustrated aesthetic, which is beautiful in it’s own right. The colours aren’t overly saturated, but they aren’t muted either. The shapes are sharp, but not so much that they’re harsh and unrelatable. It’s an incredibly beautiful game to look at, and more importantly, it’s true beauty comes from how it portrays its characters. Everyone in Possum Springs is presented as an anthropomorphic animal of some kind. Cats, dogs, bears, mice, birds and whatever Bea is supposed to be. Cats, dogs, bears, mice, birds and whatever Bea is supposed to be. And it’s not because they are indeed cats and dogs and so on. There are clearly other living creatures in this world that act as animals in our world do. The residents of this town are presented this way because it allows us - the audience, to connect immediately to them. If you’ve ever read Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics”, you’ll be familiar with this page where he explains how the simpler you make a face, the easier it is to relate. In fact, we use similar imagery everyday in our communications. Emoticons & emojis are just representations of our feelings. When someone sends a smiling face with their message, we associate their face smiling with it. The more complex that you draw a face, the less then we can relate to it, and place ourselves within it.
In the case of this particular game, each character has a relatively unique face. None of the faces are distinctly human, however the basic shapes manipulated in certain ways allow the characters to express emotions that we can understand, just like with emojis. The other benefit of using non-human faces, is that we as the audience can’t associate any preconceived characteristics, stereotypes or ideologies on them. Looking at these characters, we can’t tell their race, gender or sexual orientation. Things that when we look at anyone, whatever stereotypes, conscious or unconscious, are present and how we act towards them. We all act differently towards different people in different ways and as much as we’d like to tell ourselves that we treat each other equally, we don’t. Night In The Woods allows us to get around this and take each of these characters as they are without prejudice and let their words and actions define themselves. The characters in this game are relatable, with more than just one dimensional representations of different mental health problems. They and their conversations are the soul and driving force behind everything in this game. With the core mechanics in this game being walking and talking, Even the core plot takes a back seat for the first few hours in order for the player to take in the world and start placing themselves inside of it. Immersion is, in my personal opinion, the primary indicator of success for a game. Even though high fidelity graphics and sound are a selling point, players still gravitate to games like: Counter-Strike, League of Legends and World of Warcraft, whose visuals are simple enough to work on low-end hardware. And on the other hand, even gameplay isn’t the primary factor either, as games like Night In The Woods and Firewatch have very few mechanics that could just play themselves.
However, games that let the player be in them, to immerse them are what we as the gaming audience gravitate to Whether it’s a walking simulator, action RPG or military shooter, immersion is key. And I’ve found that maybe immersion is something that can help people suffering from depression. I’d recommend watching a video by Writing On Games, where Hamish Black discusses how Dark Souls helped him cope with suicidal depression. His personal story of playing the game, which by all accounts appears to be an antithesis of joy, was actually something that helped him. Discovering that the game’s mechanics and challenge was actually a celebration of life. Through interviews with friends and strangers online, I found in particular one story from a friend that grabbed my attention. He’s been suffering from clinical depression for well over a year, dropping out from college and struggling to find his feet and what to do. However, one thing he enjoys the most is playing Dark Souls III. In fact all the footage of Dark Souls III on my channel has been provided by him When asked about why he perseveres in Dark Souls but not real life, he said; “You know there’s a goal, and your progress, even though it’s slow, you can see that you’re moving forward. Dodging and fighting and beating a boss feels great. Failing in Dark Souls feels like learning.” Personally, I wouldn’t agree. Failing over and over again gives me an anxiety that paralyzes me, but I can understand why he feels that way.
Regardless of how difficult and challenging a game like Dark Souls may be, my friend, and many others like him, find it a lot easier to deal with than the real world. Being immersed in a world that you know you can come back and do better in is motivating. Knowing that all is not lost and the power within to come back from the worst case scenario is possible and motivating. However, in the socio-economic climate that we live in, he and many others, can’t translate that to the real world. It’s heartbreaking to hear that people I know and care for feel like they’ll never achieve anything or feel like they’ll never be loved or do anything with their lives. To feel hopeless and apathetic towards life and think "why bother?" It is strange that when juxtaposed, that gruelling battles against demi-Gods and monsters beyond imagination are less scary than social interaction, but none the less it’s understandable. You know what you’re getting in a crawl through dungeons and kingdoms where everything is out to get you. but in the real world you don’t know what someone else wants, what they think or their motives are. You may already have preconceived notions about people before you meet them, and the anxiety for the worst thing that could happen builds and builds inside you. In a number of cases that I looked into, many people suffering from depression and anxiety have a game that they refer to for it’s challenge and/or immersion. The “sad game” is like the album or playlist you play when you’re sad or going through a breakup. It’s a game that you find yourself referring to as a means of comfort or escape, regardless of challenge. Almost any game fits in that category. My friend uses Dark Souls III and Nuclear Throne. I have another friend who plays World of Warcraft religiously. My girlfriend plays Party Hard and Broforce, and I play Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands. If you were to ask me what my game of the year was for 2017 so far, in the year of Horizon Zero Dawn, Breath of the Wild, Nioh, Nier Automata and Prey, I would tell you my game of the year so far is Ghost Recon: Wildlands. And obviously, I’m going to need to provide some context. For me personally, I get a lot of anxiety attacks.
I probably went through about 10 just writing the script to this essay for the three months I spent working on it. Sometimes I get it when I’m trying to decide what I want to play. With a giant library of games that never seems to end, I just sometimes feel like I can’t. There’s the guilt of spending so much money on games that I’ve never played, the remorse of is this game going to be a waste of my time or not? However, one thing I can rely on is the shared experience with a friend or two. Ghost Recon Wildlands is far from a perfect game. At times, it struggles to be a good one. However, one thing I feel that most critics fail to realise is that this is a game that's not meant to be played solo. It’s a co-operative experience with a tacked on story for the sake of story. Playing games with friends is one of the simplest and easiest ways of dealing with depression. Having friends next to you in couch co-op or on a voice server to play games and share experiences is cathartic. Any game is better with friends. Even not so great games like Wildlands. The reason that this game is game of the year for me is because of my friend Philip. He's an engineering student in Germany He’s an engineering student in Germany and we’ve been playing Wildlands since it’s release. three months that we’ve been playing the game, we’ve completed less than half of what the game had to offer. We don’t play on our own, we don't play with others, and we don't play without each other. And the weekly hour or so sessions that we have; we do the missions and side quests. Sometimes we just drive around aimlessly, shooting cartel members. Honestly, just driving and drifting on mountain roads and talking about life and nothing is my kind of therapy. And that subjective experience is the best gaming experience I’ve had this year. I’m sure most people would say the exploration in Breath of the Wild or turning into a mug in Prey, or something else is the best experience they’ve had in 2017, but for me, switching between ultra stealthy infiltration missions to crazy helicopter rides to aimless driving is the most fun I’ve had this year because those experiences are shared. With a friend, who understands. If we’re having a difficult time in a mission, we’ll do it again, together. Whereas if I were to play by myself, I’d probably not return back to the game.
When you’re depressed or feeling low, having others around may not solve the problem, but it can be incredibly helpful. So in conclusion Yes, I do believe that games and gaming can help people who are depressed, anxious, or suffering from mental illness. There’s a wide spectrum of ailments that people deal with on a daily basis ranging from the mild to the extremely severe. In the modern western world, we have a lot of realities that we’re going to be facing and none of them are easy. However games aren't the Be-all and end-all solution. It takes time, patience, awareness and a will to learn and accept these things. Life isn’t easy and sometimes, you’re going to need help. You should remember that you need to be kind to yourself, to take care of yourself. There will be times in life when everything feels horrible. You’ll feel like giving up, not caring and just letting the world pass you by. You won’t know what you’re doing and where you’re going or how to get there. But, to quote the internet: "One thing in life you can learn from video games, if there's an obstacle in front of you, you're going in the right direction." Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed the video. You should take away from this video is if you're suffering from Depression and/or anxiety You need to talk to someone. Whether it's a friend or family, someone you can trust, or maybe even a stranger I understand that talking about things like this can be tough and finding someone that you can even talk to about it, can be even harder.
Before we begin we have to get the formalities out of the way. There won't be any major spoilers in what I say, but there may be some visual ones. You can see the games that will have some kind of spoilers here If this is something that's going to bother you, I'd recommend turning off the video. A secondary warning for those who find the topic of depression, anxiety suicide and mental health distressing. If this is something that upsets you I would recommend turning off the video, and a tertiary warning for those who aren't open to discuss the idea of people opening up and discussing their personal issues or stories regarding mental health. This is a video series about discussion, sharing ideas and thoughts. I'd highly recommend keeping an open mind when watching, but if that's something that you're unable to do I would recommend turning off the video. Depression affects over 10% of the world's population. It's been referred to as a chemical imbalance in the brain, as an emptiness in the soul. At the time of writing this, we don’t know exactly what it is, but we know it’s effects.
These can range from mild to extreme and our mental health is an integral part of our human experience As someone who’s suffered from depression since the age of 9 or 10, ranging from low moods to self-harm and suicide attempts I know this isn't something that can be cured, however it is something that can be managed in most cases One of the worst parts of suffering from depression is that the people around you who aren't suffering in the way that you are... ...just don't see it. It's invisible Receiving comments like “snap out of it”, “get up and do something” and so on are just not helpful. Which leads to the person in question feeling worse for not being able to express or explain their feelings. Symptoms of depression generally include continuous low mood or sadness, feeling hopeless and helpless having low self-esteem, feeling tearful guilt-ridden irritable and intolerant of others, having no motivation or interest in things, finding it difficult to make decisions not getting any enjoyment out of life, feeling anxious or worried and/or having suicidal thoughts, or thoughts of harming oneself. If you feel that you are suffering from these symptoms for a prolonged time I and the medical community as a whole would highly recommend speaking to your GP immediately Many people wait a long time before seeking help.
The sooner you see a doctor, the sooner you can be on the way to recovery. The effects of Depression have a huge range which can even lead to long spouts of self-isolation. Japan’s been dealing with a declining population issue for quite a while. Numerous articles and studies have been done on the topic. With young men and women in the nation who have, to put it bluntly; checked out of life. Researchers have developed a specific set of criteria, which include; spending most of the day and nearly every day confined to home, marked and persistent avoidance of social situations, social withdrawal symptoms causing significant functional impairment, and no apparent physical etiology to account for the social withdrawal symptoms. The people who are diagnosed with these symptoms are labelled Hikikomori. Which loosely translates to “pulling inward” or “being confined”. This is something that affects mostly, but not exclusively, young men who face huge pressure in school and in their careers. And this isn’t an issue that is exclusive to Japan. Cases of Hikikomori can be found all over the world. In an article on the Financial Review, Ryan Avent asks “Why young men are giving up work for full-time gaming?” In it, he interviews a number of people to discuss their gaming habits, as well as their outlook on life.
Some of the interviewees are described as people who work few hours, if at all, just enough to buy the games that they want, and pay the basic bills. Some are people who’ve had solid careers and find that they’d rather spend their time with games as their luxury than spend it slaving away and having no time for anything else. Even with people that I’ve personally interviewed and spoken to, one of the most common things I’ve heard is “why bother?”. As the generation who grew up in the turn of the millennium they grew up with a blend of Golden age Disney, Cartoon Network, Saturday morning television, 80s reruns, and video games. This is the nostalgic period of our collective childhood which were “the better times”. And now that they’ve grown up, with commitments, debts and an economy that seems fruitless, it’s no surprise that people are giving up on the ideas and dreams we were all told we’d have by this age. Many people that I spoke to are what the Japanese would call Hikikomori. They’re shut-ins. In fact some of my closest friends are just that. Their main interaction comes from playing video games with other people online There is a vast number of people who aren't just giving up on work. They're giving up on life. In a 2012 study by the office of National statistics in the United Kingdom; Suicide is the number one killer of men aged 20 to 49. 26 percent of recorded deaths of men aged 20 to 34 are from suicide, with 13% of men aged 35 to 49 It's also our number one killer of women age 20 to 34 and the third biggest killer of women aged 35 to 49 Suicide is the single biggest killer of men aged under 45 in the united kingdom, with 76% of all suicides in 2014 being men Terminating oneself is an extreme measure, and as someone who's also tried on plenty of occasions: It's no joke.
To some it's a solution to what seems like a never-ending problem. A suicidal person must overcome intense emotional distress to commit the final act. And when they do, it’s because they feel a sense of: burden, emotional pain, escaping negative feelings, altered social world, and hopelessness There have been games that have tried to talk about depression and mental illness. Some come off very unfriendly and in your face about it, which doesn’t help. One game that did it exceptionally well is Infinite Fall’s Night In The Woods. This game follows the story of Mae Bukowkski, a 21 year old college dropout who has returned to live at home with her parents. It’s not common for the residents of Possum Springs to move on to bigger things outside of it’s quaint town, but Mae had the opportunity. Night in the Woods is the coming of age story for 20-30 year olds. Not something that’s all that common as far as entertainment media goes. Coming of age stories were reserved for teenagers and told tales of young people growing up and dealing with the realities of life. But the world has changed. The films and tv shows from the last century are no longer relevant when trying to connect to people who are “coming of age”. We live in times where the dreams of growing up, getting a place of our own, marrying the person you love and settling down no longer exist the way we were told. We live in an age of constant technological innovation. The dreams of generations before us; of working hard and having everything no longer apply. And Night In The Woods is one of the first stories to address the zeitgeist of our modern era. College and university education is overpriced, extremely stressful and has zero promises of a fruitful future. Not everyone is gonna make it and succeeds. And this is why the game was so well received amidst it’s flaws. In filmmaking, there’s a general rule of “show, don’t tell.” Where having exposition that’s quite blatant ruins the story and motivations. And as games being the next stage of creative expression, the rule evolves to “do, don’t show.”Night In The Woods, as a game that didn’t pander to any demographic or show us “hey look at me, this is a game about depression and how it affects people.” It had us do the actions. The game's mechanics are walking and talking. And when you're limited to just dialogue options, It feels honest within its limitations and true to its fleshed out cast of characters. I have a lot of problems with this game, but I can't ignore one of my favorite aspects of night in the woods; It’s portrayal and presentation are magnificent.
We have a very indie illustrated aesthetic, which is beautiful in it’s own right. The colours aren’t overly saturated, but they aren’t muted either. The shapes are sharp, but not so much that they’re harsh and unrelatable. It’s an incredibly beautiful game to look at, and more importantly, it’s true beauty comes from how it portrays its characters. Everyone in Possum Springs is presented as an anthropomorphic animal of some kind. Cats, dogs, bears, mice, birds and whatever Bea is supposed to be. Cats, dogs, bears, mice, birds and whatever Bea is supposed to be. And it’s not because they are indeed cats and dogs and so on. There are clearly other living creatures in this world that act as animals in our world do. The residents of this town are presented this way because it allows us - the audience, to connect immediately to them. If you’ve ever read Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics”, you’ll be familiar with this page where he explains how the simpler you make a face, the easier it is to relate. In fact, we use similar imagery everyday in our communications. Emoticons & emojis are just representations of our feelings. When someone sends a smiling face with their message, we associate their face smiling with it. The more complex that you draw a face, the less then we can relate to it, and place ourselves within it.
In the case of this particular game, each character has a relatively unique face. None of the faces are distinctly human, however the basic shapes manipulated in certain ways allow the characters to express emotions that we can understand, just like with emojis. The other benefit of using non-human faces, is that we as the audience can’t associate any preconceived characteristics, stereotypes or ideologies on them. Looking at these characters, we can’t tell their race, gender or sexual orientation. Things that when we look at anyone, whatever stereotypes, conscious or unconscious, are present and how we act towards them. We all act differently towards different people in different ways and as much as we’d like to tell ourselves that we treat each other equally, we don’t. Night In The Woods allows us to get around this and take each of these characters as they are without prejudice and let their words and actions define themselves. The characters in this game are relatable, with more than just one dimensional representations of different mental health problems. They and their conversations are the soul and driving force behind everything in this game. With the core mechanics in this game being walking and talking, Even the core plot takes a back seat for the first few hours in order for the player to take in the world and start placing themselves inside of it. Immersion is, in my personal opinion, the primary indicator of success for a game. Even though high fidelity graphics and sound are a selling point, players still gravitate to games like: Counter-Strike, League of Legends and World of Warcraft, whose visuals are simple enough to work on low-end hardware. And on the other hand, even gameplay isn’t the primary factor either, as games like Night In The Woods and Firewatch have very few mechanics that could just play themselves.
However, games that let the player be in them, to immerse them are what we as the gaming audience gravitate to Whether it’s a walking simulator, action RPG or military shooter, immersion is key. And I’ve found that maybe immersion is something that can help people suffering from depression. I’d recommend watching a video by Writing On Games, where Hamish Black discusses how Dark Souls helped him cope with suicidal depression. His personal story of playing the game, which by all accounts appears to be an antithesis of joy, was actually something that helped him. Discovering that the game’s mechanics and challenge was actually a celebration of life. Through interviews with friends and strangers online, I found in particular one story from a friend that grabbed my attention. He’s been suffering from clinical depression for well over a year, dropping out from college and struggling to find his feet and what to do. However, one thing he enjoys the most is playing Dark Souls III. In fact all the footage of Dark Souls III on my channel has been provided by him When asked about why he perseveres in Dark Souls but not real life, he said; “You know there’s a goal, and your progress, even though it’s slow, you can see that you’re moving forward. Dodging and fighting and beating a boss feels great. Failing in Dark Souls feels like learning.” Personally, I wouldn’t agree. Failing over and over again gives me an anxiety that paralyzes me, but I can understand why he feels that way.
Regardless of how difficult and challenging a game like Dark Souls may be, my friend, and many others like him, find it a lot easier to deal with than the real world. Being immersed in a world that you know you can come back and do better in is motivating. Knowing that all is not lost and the power within to come back from the worst case scenario is possible and motivating. However, in the socio-economic climate that we live in, he and many others, can’t translate that to the real world. It’s heartbreaking to hear that people I know and care for feel like they’ll never achieve anything or feel like they’ll never be loved or do anything with their lives. To feel hopeless and apathetic towards life and think "why bother?" It is strange that when juxtaposed, that gruelling battles against demi-Gods and monsters beyond imagination are less scary than social interaction, but none the less it’s understandable. You know what you’re getting in a crawl through dungeons and kingdoms where everything is out to get you. but in the real world you don’t know what someone else wants, what they think or their motives are. You may already have preconceived notions about people before you meet them, and the anxiety for the worst thing that could happen builds and builds inside you. In a number of cases that I looked into, many people suffering from depression and anxiety have a game that they refer to for it’s challenge and/or immersion. The “sad game” is like the album or playlist you play when you’re sad or going through a breakup. It’s a game that you find yourself referring to as a means of comfort or escape, regardless of challenge. Almost any game fits in that category. My friend uses Dark Souls III and Nuclear Throne. I have another friend who plays World of Warcraft religiously. My girlfriend plays Party Hard and Broforce, and I play Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands. If you were to ask me what my game of the year was for 2017 so far, in the year of Horizon Zero Dawn, Breath of the Wild, Nioh, Nier Automata and Prey, I would tell you my game of the year so far is Ghost Recon: Wildlands. And obviously, I’m going to need to provide some context. For me personally, I get a lot of anxiety attacks.
I probably went through about 10 just writing the script to this essay for the three months I spent working on it. Sometimes I get it when I’m trying to decide what I want to play. With a giant library of games that never seems to end, I just sometimes feel like I can’t. There’s the guilt of spending so much money on games that I’ve never played, the remorse of is this game going to be a waste of my time or not? However, one thing I can rely on is the shared experience with a friend or two. Ghost Recon Wildlands is far from a perfect game. At times, it struggles to be a good one. However, one thing I feel that most critics fail to realise is that this is a game that's not meant to be played solo. It’s a co-operative experience with a tacked on story for the sake of story. Playing games with friends is one of the simplest and easiest ways of dealing with depression. Having friends next to you in couch co-op or on a voice server to play games and share experiences is cathartic. Any game is better with friends. Even not so great games like Wildlands. The reason that this game is game of the year for me is because of my friend Philip. He's an engineering student in Germany He’s an engineering student in Germany and we’ve been playing Wildlands since it’s release. three months that we’ve been playing the game, we’ve completed less than half of what the game had to offer. We don’t play on our own, we don't play with others, and we don't play without each other. And the weekly hour or so sessions that we have; we do the missions and side quests. Sometimes we just drive around aimlessly, shooting cartel members. Honestly, just driving and drifting on mountain roads and talking about life and nothing is my kind of therapy. And that subjective experience is the best gaming experience I’ve had this year. I’m sure most people would say the exploration in Breath of the Wild or turning into a mug in Prey, or something else is the best experience they’ve had in 2017, but for me, switching between ultra stealthy infiltration missions to crazy helicopter rides to aimless driving is the most fun I’ve had this year because those experiences are shared. With a friend, who understands. If we’re having a difficult time in a mission, we’ll do it again, together. Whereas if I were to play by myself, I’d probably not return back to the game.
When you’re depressed or feeling low, having others around may not solve the problem, but it can be incredibly helpful. So in conclusion Yes, I do believe that games and gaming can help people who are depressed, anxious, or suffering from mental illness. There’s a wide spectrum of ailments that people deal with on a daily basis ranging from the mild to the extremely severe. In the modern western world, we have a lot of realities that we’re going to be facing and none of them are easy. However games aren't the Be-all and end-all solution. It takes time, patience, awareness and a will to learn and accept these things. Life isn’t easy and sometimes, you’re going to need help. You should remember that you need to be kind to yourself, to take care of yourself. There will be times in life when everything feels horrible. You’ll feel like giving up, not caring and just letting the world pass you by. You won’t know what you’re doing and where you’re going or how to get there. But, to quote the internet: "One thing in life you can learn from video games, if there's an obstacle in front of you, you're going in the right direction." Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed the video. You should take away from this video is if you're suffering from Depression and/or anxiety You need to talk to someone. Whether it's a friend or family, someone you can trust, or maybe even a stranger I understand that talking about things like this can be tough and finding someone that you can even talk to about it, can be even harder.
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