On the subject of mental illness in games

It is a very relative topic as each of us will be effected by these things in various different ways so it’s hard to generalise any of this, it seems best served to discuss individual situations and share the as that, not a ‘right wrong’ but just as a ‘this is my experience’ 

This hobby can be so very rewarding in so many ways, @mordiano I’m happy you’ve found a way to hobby with out that affecting you and I can imagine it brings you great relief and happiness to be able to do that

@dracs man I loved that episode of scrubs! I remember being lung enough at the time that not much made think and consider from other people’s point of view but that one hit home even then and really brought to my knees and understood that other lead very different lives in many different ways . Kudos to scrubs the did that story very well indeed

My experience with this actually goes away from gaming but is still relevant I feel.  My eldest son is Autistic. This is a very wide spectrum of behaviours and very few autistic people will be the same, they’ll have similar triats between them but even then dealing with those and overcoming these on a day to day basis can very different for each individual. My son is what they call ‘high functioning’ which means in a lot of ways his autism is not obvious to a lot of people from the outside as he doesnt display and outgoing or ‘distruptive’ traits (just mean things like loud noises or outbursts whilst in class or walking around a supermarket etc, not to mean that to be a negative but the best word I could think to describe it). He is also extremely good with Math, numbers and patterns give him great joy and so he is very good at what others consider quite hard things like origami and music, taught himself the piano which is incredible to see (he’s 9 BTW 🙂 )

Anyway so with him still being young he is aware of autism but not completely up on everything about it yet so when there is an opportunity to show and example or use something as reference point to him it can be useful. When watching the latest Power Ranger movie I thought I saw such a moment, the ‘clever’ borderline genius guy was outwardly autistic, they actually said it in the film and I thought “brilliant!” I can show him a positive aspect of what he lives with and get a good place for him to build on and refer to himself…. but no! Yes he was clever in the film however they chose to focus on he clumsiness and for too often he was the butt of all jokes. Yes there are funny moments of life with autism but the jokes didn’t reflect that they made that character come off as the groups clown and were a direct result of his autistic behaviour to the point where I lost this positive role model for my son. These views are of course my own and if others found the film any different they are of course welcome to this post is as I said at the beginning just my experience of this and that is all this is meant to be.

On another note Jurassic World, Grey the youngest lead character is written to be autistic and was going to be outwardly autistic in the film but for some reason they decided not to out that out there and just describe him as ‘awkward’ or ‘quirky’ instead which is very disappointing from Mt point of view as they had a chance to shine a very positive light on something on a very big stage indeed bit nervous very few people if anybody even knows the character is autistic. Here’s some lovely moments we relate to when he asks his brother ‘how many pounds?’ does the island weigh and he actually saves the day with maths… at the end of the film he says ‘we need more teeth’ as a simplfied reflection of we can’t do enough damage weighing up who’s fighting who. Yay! Autism saves the day!

The point is that mental health issues can be used (and are probably best used) by the social giants that are games and films as these are more likely to reach a generation that is not going to pick up a leaflet at the doctors office. That’s why it’s really important that when they do decide to involve these things it needs to be handled with care so it can enhance the game or film that is in as well treat anybody affected by it with awareness and respect 

In my humble opinion of course, thanks for reading if you got this far 😉