Horror Game Jam Takes Games Away from Mental Health Stereotypes

[Quellist]

they just *never* represent mental illness otherwise. (or so seldom it's a token when they do). Problem there.

I always felt Angela Orosco from Silent Hill 2 was a pretty good portrayal of someone with mental illness who wasnt actually violent, i grant she had killed her father but considering he raped and abused her for years its quite possible when she finally killed him it was to prevent more abuse, she was never actually violent toward the player and came across very much as the victim wanting to, but being unable to reach out for help rather than a violent headcase.

 

[srpilha]

And there's no case that I know of where the horror movie implies that all people with mental illnesses are violent. So I don't see what the problem is when going case by case. And I wouldn't expect movies to shy away from having a girl who sucks at math, a man who's a nymphomaniac or a black guy who's a crook because you can show people like that without implying that all men/women/black people are like that.

You're missing my point. We clearly agree that representing these characters is perfectly okay, and does not imply any generalisation. The problem appears when they are the *only* representation we get, or very very nearly the only one, throughout the medium, or throughout media in general. That's one important way in which sexism, racism, ageism, ableism, and other discriminations, keep surviving and thriving in our culture.

Do videogames, or any artistic expression, have an intrinsic obligation to deal with this and actively work towards challenging these stereotypes? Nope. That would be like saying that TV should be 100% educational. Screw that.

Would it be nice to have some more diversity in how people are represented in our cultural outputs? By all means YES, and I won't stop asking for that any time soon. Reinforcing stereotypes is lazy at best, asshole-ish in general, and keeping that in mind is important when evaluating works of art (or any discourse, for that matter).

 

[Genocidicles]

Oh great, looks like the social justice warriors from Tumblr are making games now.

 

[DrummerM]

Oh great, looks like the social justice warriors from Tumblr are making games now.

They're no longer just content to harass current developers into changing their own games content. No, they finally feel the need to take things into their own hands. In a way it's rather admirable.