Re: Depression quest, a gamebook illustrating life with clinical depressi
@Jayde I agree on your thoughts of gender, though one fact I've always found interesting in the cryticism of the "Damsel in destress" trope, whether in fiction, games, tv etc, is that just as it promotes the pacivity of women, it also devalues the suffering of men. AFter all it's quite okay for the hero to risk his life and endure injury, but woe betide that anything bad happens to the princess, look at stories like Rapunzel or Sleeping beauty.
Personally i regard both roll types as equally bad, though my views on gender are quite different from any death threats, trolling or worse which is just universally bad whatever your opinion.
Regarding Depression Quest, while I take your point that the writing could've been more artistic, at the same time I do feel Dq should be evaluated in so far as it sets up a specific goal, ie, educating Jo Blogs about the problems inherent in depression, (Jo of whatever gender).
It presents Jo Blogs with ave rage life situations and then shows that the choices a person suffering depression would have open to them in those situations are not the choices Jo Blogs would have.It doesn't suggest this is a definitive exploration of the experience of someone with depression (it says as much in the game's disclaimer).
If the reader is not! Jo Blogs, then the affect will be different, pure and simple. For example there is a fine line betwene "whining" and "honesty" and to what extent person seems to be doing the one and not the other will likely be an affect of the person evaluating, for example a person suffering social phobia would find the idea of someone who was accepted enough to be invited to parties complaining about their lot be a problem, indeed I'll admit that some of the writing did go partly in that direction for me on occasion even though my own issue is not exactly endogenous depression of the sort mentioned here.
However, one th ing I do know is that it is remarkable how little Jane or John Mcaverage actually understands any sort of major disabling condition, (indeed there are enough experiences of people's missunderstanding of blindness mentioned on this forum alone), so anything that promotes that sort of understanding, particularly in the use of interactive story telling gets my vote whatever the execution.
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