Games like Celeste and Hellblade show other devs how to get mental illness right

If there’s one thing Dr. Jennifer Hazel wanted people to take away from her panel at GDC, it was that psychosis and psychopathy are not the same disorder. If there were two things, it’s that games have a tremendous capacity to reflect the struggles of people with mental health issues, and to break down the stereotypes and misinformation that have come alongside psychological disorders for years. Hazel, founder of the gaming-focused mental health awareness organisation CheckPoint, says that games have often fallen into the traps of stigmatising mental illness - just as movies and television have. But while there are plenty of games set in creepy mental asylums or featuring loads of rampaging ‘psychos,’ at a panel titled ‘How to Represent Mental Illness in Games,’ Hazel showed six games that show mental illness accurately and empathetically - and explained how developers should learn from their example in the future. An organisation called Mindframe presents a set of guidelines for general media coverage of mental illness, which Hazel adapts into a set of recommendations for game developers: use accurate language to talk about mental illness; accurately portray symptoms; know your purpose when you’re using mental illness; avoid stereotypes; show empathy toward people suffering from mental health issues; and show people giving - and receiving - support.

from PCGamesN https://ift.tt/2JogkKY