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.