The Depression Quest game was a very interesting experience. Over the course of the last few days , I have tried to play it 6 times to see as many possible outcomes. What I took note of the most is that while choosing the healthiest choices early on does improve parts of the narrative it does not necessarily lead to a satisfying, positive ending.  This is perhaps my biggest critique of the game because it is often told to those with mental illnesses that early intervention will lead to a better outcome. I think this message could still be achieved in Depression Quest if the writer of this narrative decided to use the epilogue not as a final state but rather as a continuous work in progress with much prospect that this character, in time, will achieve a healthy life.

Like most have said, this story utilizes the Twine format in a very informative way with a very clear message. I particularly really liked the embedded pictures throughout the narrative. This activity really highlights the need to get technology in the hands of many different people. This would be a really great activity (along with some other supplemented material) to teach high school-aged kids about emotional health and its importance in our lives and the ways the computer science field is not regulated to intense data analytics or strictly “coding”.

I think everyone including myself had some moments in their life when they felt depressed without many reasons and act pessimistic. On this Depression Quest, I kept choosing the options that I have done when I felt depressed before. It could have been boring since it was a pretty long story, and the repertoire was repeating a lot. But at the same time, I was pulled into it, because it was me who was actually making choices, not just reading what the character was doing. I had more opportunities to think more about the situation and how would the character feels like. This was similar to an interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch that came out in 2018.

Moreover, some words were highlighted in the passages and I could find more details about them before I read any further. For example, when Alex was first introduced, I clicked it and I could see what personality characteristics she has, what kind of job she is working on, and how she met the main character. This format of reading allowed me to concentrate on the things that I want to know about and did not interrupt the flow of reading by not giving redundant information in the main passages.

As the story continued, it was interesting that some of the choices that I could make were blocked. Maybe it is because the decisions I made earlier affected the later choices. However, sometimes I wanted to choose the choice that was blocked, but I couldn’t, so I had to choose the alternative among the rest of the possible choices. Particularly in the story that deals about human emotion, it varies a lot as time goes, depending on the different situation, so it might have been better if I was allowed for all the options.

Before clicking continue on the story, I had a couple misconceptions of what the purpose of this website was. In our society, depression is a difficult topic to cover since advocates of mental health need to cover how serious the topic is without reflecting it in a negative light or else no one will seek help. In the other hand, if depression therapy is presented to students in a funny and encouraging tone, then the students will lack the motivation to participate in something that may not actually help them. However, depression quest is the perfect middle-ground to explain how depression works through an interactive story line while still reflecting upon the seriousness of mental health. Although I did not personally deal with depression, I was there at every step of the process for someone who did. During that stage of my life, I never clearly understood how depression impacted every aspect of a person’s life, so I stood as an outsider offering help without realizing what mental health consists of. Since depression quest altered the amount of decisions to take depending on our mental state, I learned how small daily decisions limit the brain’s ability to make seemingly rational decisions. Looking at the overall purpose of depression quest, I realized that it is not about teaching the user about depression; instead, it stood as the perfect interactive platform to dig inside the mind of someone who has depression and the variety wide variety of ways of dealing with it.

Depression Quest was an excellent example of digital technology being used to spread awareness about a particular issue while destigmatizing it. Being an interactive game, Depression Quest is able to captivate its players more than a mere article. Moreover, this interactive format allows the players to identify with the depressed person and experience life through the eyes of someone suffering with this disease. In this way, I thought Depression Quest was remarkable in that it builds understanding of depression by obliging the players to make everyday decisions within the constraints of a clinically depressed mind. This experience really helps the players to understand the torment that comes everyday living with this disease.
On a more technical level, the use of Twine to create Depression Quest aided my understanding of just how versatile the format is. The story was very well crafted and included many layers but still operated based upon the choice paradigm that we experimented with in class. I found this inspiring, because Depression Quest shows how empowering and expedient a simple digital tool can become when used effectively.
I am sure most of my peers will echo that they tried to choose the healthiest choices possible throughout the game, hopefully leading to the most auspicious outcome. I thought this was another important aspect of Depression Quest. The game does not truly have an ending, merely outcomes that indicate what the protagonist’s future may be. This is important in order to understand the impossibility of ridding oneself definitively of depression, which the developers stress in the epilogue.

Depression Quest was an engrossing experience that was both challenging mentally as well as a well designed use of the Twine platform. Aside from the dense and immersive narrative elements of the game, the removal of certain options was perhaps the most interesting aspect. In most instances, the options removed would be what I would personally have done if these situations were my life; I instead picked what I felt to be the best, most healthy alternative. These limited options seem to be the purpose of the narrative, though; living with depression doesn’t mean I have the right mentality to make all these decisions, and so I might resort to less healthy behaviors. Some of these decisions were also ones I’ve seen people close to me, including in my own family, have to go through. These moments where full control was limited allowed me to understand how one with depression might feel when facing even basic life decisions.

This narrative displays the scope and power of digital tools; an individual can be briefly submerged in the life of someone else and understand that psyche, developing more empathy in the process. While the ending I achieved in Depression Quest was probably the most positive one, in some cases the outcomes of my selection would be harrowing to experience in real life. The immersive quality of Twine made it so that I was invested in each outcome, making each passage more life-like and experiential; I was the protagonist and each emotion and event was mine. Much of our discussion so far has focused on how computers and their programs are best viewed within the context of their development. Outcomes are solutions to the brainstormed problems, and in this case, the digital choose-you-own adventure format disseminated information that allowed me to have a more-intense of experience conditions that many around me suffer each day.