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.
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You make a good point about this story not being purely informational, but rather an experience that leaves the player with personal and emotional reactions. There are many good resources that explain the technical facts of depression, but this is the first platform I have come across that demonstrates the emotional, personal aspect. I think the designers understood a key aspect of how humans understand things, which is personal connection and storytelling. The story format allowed specific details to be communicated. It made depression less of an abstract entity and more of a concrete reality.