Depression Quest

A short, original video-game-inspired experience. It's free, and your only commitment is time—an hour or so. I would generally recommend it.

It will give you a view into "depression," but only in an extremely narrow sense. Though the important introduction page explains the premise, it does not do so well enough. It is sure to alienate many people who feel that this story has nothing to do with them or their lives.

Actually, I think this game is valuable exactly because of that.

It's an ethnographic glimpse at the life of an extremely specific cohort of people: middle-class millennial Americans, most likely white. The issues won't speak to many of us: being invited to college parties, working a 9-to-5 job, trolling Craigslist for new jobs, owning a car, living away from one's parents in one's own apartment, having a girlfriend, watching Netflix, being able to afford and have access to therapy, etc. It's not just an issue of "privilege," as the introduction points out. Some of these culturally specific aspects would actually seem like punishments, rather than privileges, to many people in the world. Living alone, away from a supportive family? Who would choose that? It's amazing that this entire cohort of people doesn't suffer from depression.

But that's where this game seems valuable to me: it's a window into the lives of this strange generation of people, who manifest in their personal, interpersonal, emotional worlds the brunt of capitalist America's crushing isolation.

We all live with capitalism, even if we're not self-centered millennials. We all can sympathize with aspects of the protagonist's life, even when it's unfamiliar (and annoying) to us. It's good to think with.

I do wish the developers put a bit more effort into the presentation: the design is drab, and though the music is fitting, it would have been nice to have some variation. I didn't expect to be entertained, but a sleeker experience could have made this effort more palatable.

A personal message to Zoe Quinn: stay strong and keep doing what you're doing, because even if it's not everybody's cup of tea, it touches many of us and adds something good and useful to the world. "Gamergate" is an embarrassment to any decent human.

Finally, I would like to thank the developers for supporting Linux!