Doki Doki literature club killed someone

Marik2

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Nov 10, 2009
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Surprised that it took this long.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/dont-child-play-doki-doki-12813342

https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/sunderland-parents-warned-about-online-game-as-teen-death-probe-launched-1-9218527
 

Majestic_Manatee

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Steam doesn't age rate their games? That's really bad.

Inb4 people claim its all fearmongering, a quote from first article;

"Some reports, including from The Daily Mail, have linked this to an incident of teenage suicide. In the scrum, there is a degree of misinformation and plenty of alarming quotes from schools, police and Manchester's coroner's office.

Some have reported that the game sends messages to your mobile phone, which according to my research isn't the case. Others have stated it is an online game, when in fact it's played locally.

To enable parents to make an informed choice about the game, and be aware of risks, I?ve created a short video with everything they need to know and steps to mitigate risks.

What About PEGI Rating?

Identifying how old children should be to play the game is made more challenging because UK law doesn't require games sold online to have an age rating. If Doki Doki Literature Club! was sold on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo or Android online stores it would get a PEGI rating because those platforms voluntarily enforce the rating. If it was on the App Store it would have an Apple age rating.

Because the game includes the work "F*ck", this means on the basis of swearing alone (even with out the Mature or Violent themes) it would get at least a PEGI 16 rating if it was released on these platforms or sold in physical form.

But because the game is on Steam it doesn't have to be rated. On the game page it is worth noting that it is listed as Psychological Horror, Visual Novel, Dark, Gore, Violent and Sexual Content. The game page also states that "This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed". When you start the game this is restated and you are required to confirm you are aged 13 or older. This is helpful but as a parent I'm keen to see Steam adopt a similar approach to consoles and voluntarily require PEGI ratings for all of its games."
 

Smithnikov_v1legacy

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Fucking HELL, why did he give this game away for free!? If he'd charged for this, he'd be singing this


Say, I wonder where GamerGate is in all of this? They are our duely appointed defenders against anti-gamer maligning, right?
 

Ender910_v1legacy

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Smithnikov said:
Say, I wonder where GamerGate is in all of this? They are our duely appointed defenders against anti-gamer maligning, right?
https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/search?q=ddlc&restrict_sr=on&t=month
 
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Another controversy with a meme game, just like Slenderman.

If you are like 12, you are old enough to play this game. If you have suffered from depression or someone you know has committed suicide, then you should not play this game. That is a proper trigger warning instead of the one they have now, but it spoils the gimmick of the game.

Preventing children from downloading the game is laughable when you can just watch your favorite youtuber react to it.
 

Smithnikov_v1legacy

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Ender910 said:
Smithnikov said:
Say, I wonder where GamerGate is in all of this? They are our duely appointed defenders against anti-gamer maligning, right?
https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/search?q=ddlc&restrict_sr=on&t=month
Ah look, apparently it's the fault of liberals/feminists. Again.
 

Drathnoxis

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That's unfortunate. Team Salvato made a good game, they don't need this.

Obviously children shouldn't play the game, but it's kind of absurd to say it's responsible for someone's suicide. Anybody who is going to kill themselves has more issues than can be caused by one work of fiction. Even a particularly emotionally impactful one
 
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Someone could not handle their subservient waifus getting too real on them. As once a kid that had issues, this might have done a lot back then to help me feel less alone in the struggle. There wasn't any media that spoke of that at the time that I saw.
Drathnoxis said:
That's unfortunate. Team Salvato made a good game, they don't need this.

Obviously children shouldn't play the game, but it's kind of absurd to say it's responsible for someone's suicide. Anybody who is going to kill themselves has more issues than can be caused by one work of fiction. Even a particularly emotionally impactful one
All it takes is a little push.
 

Tanis

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If you're mentally ill enough to kill yourself because of a GAME...you probably should have been in therapy long before you played it.
 

Elijin

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Tanis said:
If you're mentally ill enough to kill yourself because of a GAME...you probably should have been in therapy long before you played it.
Okay, so others can fill in some blanks for me here, but the initial presentation is a VN, right? A romance VN? Something that someone who struggled with or lacked significant relationships might have a habit of playing to substitute those interactions? Something which is designed to create an emotional attachment and reaction?

Which then (from what I understand) pulls a twist of slowly going down a dark path, and ending badly? Which is a twist, so not openly advertised?

So to rephrase what you said, people shouldnt do anything that exposes them to emotional vulnerability that may cause them to lose their tentative grip on the little they have? Doubling down on that, the experience they were pursuing was probably expected to be a positive re-affirming one?

Im all for people getting help as often and as much as possible, but comments like this are massively dickish.


On the other hand, I dont think the game is "responsible". It's a myriad of factors in play when someone takes their own life, and the final push can come from the most insignificant of factors, or from huge events. They could probably be a bit better about preparing people for the content matter though, so people can make decisions which fit them better (like not to play it).
 

Fieldy409_v1legacy

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Maybe it was the straw that broke the camels back, but why blame that last straw rather than the huge burden it had before?

Nobody kills themselves over a videogame unless they are already very unwell. Honestly people who are disturbed so easily as to kill themselves over somemthing like this should stay away from the internet full stop. I've seen actual suicide on the internet, anyone remember that old Jimquisition video? Thats on youtube. Just fully ban the internet from people this fragile. Heck some of the vilest troll comments i've seen have made me feel sick and those are just words. How are you going to keep kids that fragile from seeing words?

Maybe the actual ability to talk to other people online should be rated M15+ just because of the inevitable horrible stuff out there.

Im not even kidding, I've heard time and again from people who see shrinks that they are told they shouldnt go on Facebook or take breaks from it by the experts, the internet and its culture just isnt suitable for some people.
 

Saelune

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If a kid kills themselves, maybe the parents should stop blaming others for their bad parenting? Like, maybe you should have taken better care of your child? A lot of suicidal people do not actually hide it that well, people just want to pretend its not true. Hug your kid, love them, and be aware of their feelings and emotional state. If your kid cannot feel like they can talk to you about their sadness, that says something about you as a parent.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Smithnikov said:
Say, I wonder where GamerGate is in all of this? They are our duely appointed defenders against anti-gamer maligning, right?
They're waiting for Jim Sterling, Moviebob and Jezebel to blame the whole thing on misogynist vagina-fearing incels before declaring ALL of Video Gaming dead.
 

Canadamus Prime

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I think anyone who'd be brought to suicide by a work of fiction probably had far deeper psychological issues that needed to be addressed.
 
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Saelune said:
If a kid kills themselves, maybe the parents should stop blaming others for their bad parenting? Like, maybe you should have taken better care of your child? A lot of suicidal people do not actually hide it that well, people just want to pretend its not true. Hug your kid, love them, and be aware of their feelings and emotional state. If your kid cannot feel like they can talk to you about their sadness, that says something about you as a parent.
Eeeehhh....Sometimes.

I had super loving and caring parents, and yet high school still pushed me to the point where I almost attempted suicide.

I told my parents all about the bullying I was enduring (well, as good as I could tell them anyway, being an aspergers riddled teen who was terrible at expressing himself), and they did everything they could to tell the school to fix it...But nothing really got better (At least not until 4 years into it when my dad finally flipped his shit at the VP). And I didn't want to make my parents feel bad about how depressed I was, or scare them that I thought about killing myself, so I kept it to myself to not scare or hurt them. I thought it was all my problem and no one else's despite all the love and support I got at home.

That bit where depression makes you want to isolate yourself is THE most dangerous part about it. It's what makes you put on a mask everyday where you seem happy and content, but inside you're a hot mess. It's what makes you want to avoid getting help because you don't want to bring anyone down or burden them with your problem. Throw in the fact that most people barely conceive of people committing suicide, and it takes a lot of people by surprise.

In some cases, it's not bad parenting. Depression is just that isolating and dangerous. :s
 

Erttheking

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Ok, can we not have the sensational headline that says that the game was what killed him? As someone who suffers from depression and has had his mind go to very dark places, this isn't a place to play armchair psychologist when we know next to nothing about the victim. We have NO idea what was going through his head when he made this tragic decision, and it's kind of arrogant to assume we can guess.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Canadamus Prime said:
I think anyone who'd be brought to suicide by a work of fiction probably had far deeper psychological issues that needed to be addressed.
That's it entirely. Even if a video game was the final straw, there was a lifetime of straws before that. People need to look at the lifetime of depression that would lead someone to have such strong feelings towards a video game and escapism. I mean we all joke about Waifus and loving fictional characters, but anyone who actually does, who actually does have a waifu they think loves them back needs help.