“Simply being able to enjoy something becomes a rare and important treasure.”
Our ongoing series of articles examining accessibility in games continues with this piece from Caelyn.
This piece discusses depression.
Pretty grim, right?
That’s the best way I can describe living with depression.
Depression is a common mental illness.
As with most mental health conditions, many people don’t even think of depression as a disability.
The most common misconception about depression is that it’s simply being sad.
Immediately I thought of video games!
I had indeed been struggling to focus on our most pleasurable pastime for quite some time.
It’s a condition I’ve lived with ever since.
To me, depression and games have always been tied together, for good or for ill. Top of this list has to be Skyrim.
(Haha, stealth Skyrim article!
More story-focussed games just don’t hold the same appeal.
Fully sandbox titles swing too far the other way, with the lack of focus feeling a little overwhelming.
Skyrim is a familiar RPG smorgasbord.
I can do what I want to do, in whatever order I want to do it.
Mods are just the icing on the proverbial sweetroll.
Being able to tune the whole experience to exactly what I’m craving is hugely important.
Ever get the feeling where you just want to play something very specific and only that thing will suffice?
Imagine that turned up to eleven.
Next up is Dark Souls.
Again, this applies to many SoulsBorneVaniaLikes, but Dark Souls makes for useful shorthand.
It may seem a bit weird to think about Dark Souls as a comfort game.
I love the rhythm of the combat and exploration, so it always feels like time well spent.
“Hey, I finally made it through Blight Town” is a much easier triumph to share.
Most recently, I’ve absolutely fallen for deck-builders, particularlySlay the Spireand Monster Train.
To some extent, that’s a fair assessment.
Video games can help people living with disabilities in many ways.
Sometimes just being able to enjoy a game for an afternoon can mean everything.
If you feel like you need someone to talk to, the Samaritans are there to help.
Lines are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.
Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.
