Games
Games have a unique power in allowing audiences to directly engage in sensitive human issues. How do the creators of the new Life is Strange game handle this responsibility?
The artistic and technical evolution of video games over the past few decades has opened the door for creators to embrace new ways of discussing and presenting increasingly complex and poignant issues and ideas. Video game design has reached a point in which writers and directors are comfortable in using the medium’s unique interactive language to tackle ideas both delicate and controversial, whilst the audience is experienced enough in that language to understand the various messages – a theme central to the recently released Life is Strange: Before the Storm.
Mental health is one area that games have been increasingly focused on exploring and presenting to players; the need to interact with themes and on-screen characters suffering from emotional trauma forcing a level of audience engagement and empathy that isn’t always easy to achieve in other media.
Episode one of Deck Nine Games’ adventure game is one such recent example of a title seeking to increase dialogue and focus of the mental health of young adults. Protagonist Chloe is deemed an outsider at school, someone who fails to meet the narrow standards required to fit in with the more popular clique. She’s shunned by the majority of the cool kids and, for fear of negative association, she’s shunned by those wanting to be a cool kid.
It’s a game about young transitioning into an adult and the challenges of retaining an emotionally healthy state whilst doing so, all set against the background of an increasingly complicated, technological-driven world.
“Our goal at Deck Nine is to create stories about believable characters dealing with emotionally challenging and relatable issues in their lives,” explains Jeff Litchford, vice president of Deck Nine.
“These young adults face a socially connected world with no guidelines. The older generations have given them great technological innovations but no roadmap for how to navigate the new pitfalls.
“Modern adventure games give us a window into this world. Unlike film or TV, the player can more easily feel themselves to be part of the story. Because they’re interactive, the player can try responding to situations in different ways and in some sense, imagine themselves as a character in the story.”
Litchford is a firm believer in the idea that direct, interactive engagement allows us as players to grasp greater understanding of the kind of issues presented in Before the Storm. As Chloe you come face-to-face with loss, bullying, drug use, betrayal, disappointment and a range of relationship questions relating to both friends and family. How you, as Chloe, struggle to find meaning in these problems and attempt to overcome them is the driving force of the game’s plot and character arcs.
“There are players who will empathise with Chloe. They will see something of their life in her struggles,” continues Litchford. “Maybe playing through Chloe’s story they will find a strength or a new avenue for themselves.
“For other people, who aren’t facing those issues, they may find a window into feelings or situations that they didn’t understand before. We set out to handle these every day issues in an adult manner that benefited the story.”
Before the Storm’s insistence on handling these themes in a way that's realistic and relatable is a continuation of the direction taken by the original Life is Strange. It’s an approach that allows for direct discussion of everything from cyber bullying to physical bullying and from the loss of loved ones to the difficulties and compromises involved when making new friends.
Life is Strange, as a series, often aims to directly reflect reality as opposed to relying on fantasy or futuristic worlds as a means of exaggerating a point or perspective.
This mirroring of our world allows for a stronger connection between game and player, as Litchford explains:
“The issues in the Life is Strange series are issues that many if not all of us have gone through. We’ve been bullied, or we were the bully, or we were the bystander who turned a blind eye. The strength of Life is Strange is that it openly embraces these issues, rather than turning aside from them.
“The more we discuss the challenges of our modern life openly, the more people we can help guide safely through to the other side. In Before the Storm we are striving to keep the characters as real as possible. We achieve this by making them multi-dimensional. They have wants and needs, they are wounded and they hurt others – sometimes with the best of intentions. They feel fragile, but they have a hidden strength and grit that they uncover throughout their stories.”
One of the core strengths of Life is Strange is that, even though you control the actions of just one character in each game, it’s written in a such a way that you’re free to connect strongly with whichever character most speaks to you. Because you’re given free reign to choose your path through the story you can guide it towards those individuals that speak to you and explore your own thoughts and actions in relation to them.
Life is Strange and its Before the Storm follow-up are wonderful examples of the power games have when it comes to opening up and beginning conversations surrounding mental health in a way that empowers the individuals taking part in it.
The popularity of games amongst young audiences makes them perfect centres around which to channel and promote dialogue relating to the mental and emotional health of young people. It’s great to see an increasing number of creators using games for precisely this reason.
