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.
I also made decisions that reflected my own behaviors when working through depression during my first play through. Making all the best decisions seemed weirdly dishonest and I was too afraid to make all of the worst decisions because I was scared of the outcome.
The optional links to additional information I thought was a really great aspect of this style of storytelling, partly because you can appeal to people who don’t need a lot of extra info, as well as those who do like extra info. I also, think linking to extra information rather than putting it in the main body of the text is necessary if you want to make it easier for people to go through your story multiple times without getting bored. I think it’s a really interesting way of allowing the storytelling to adapt to its medium.
I didn’t play through enough times to figure whether or not the future options were blocked due to previous decisions, or rather just there to let us know that for a depressed character these options just aren’t as plausible. If it was the former, I think in a way it is sort of being true to the moods of a depressed person. I’ve definitely experienced sudden improvements in my mood that affects my behavior, but a lot of times the more bad decisions I make the worse my mood gets and the harder it is to make healthy decisions. I appreciated the gradual rise in the character’s mood as I made tiny healthy decisions. I also think that this way is a good message to people dealing with depression to pay attention to small opportunities to make healthy choices.
I was initially a bit skeptical about how the game would handle a serious issue like depression, but was surprised at how well a text based choose your own adventure game worked as a story telling platform. I also noticed the crossed out story line options and thought that they might symbolize the feeling of being restricted or constrained by depression such that certain actions don’t seem possible or achievable. I was also struck by the David Foster Wallace quote “a sort of double bind in which…sitting or standing, doing or resting, speaking or keeping silent, living or dying — are not just unpleasant but literally horrible.”
The real brilliance of Depression Quest is not really in the storytelling. The story itself was ok, but it was not at all like reading a memoir of someone with depression trying to explain to the reader “this is what it is like to feel depressed.” Instead the story used the twine decision trees to make more concrete what it feels like your mental health inhibits your sense of agency and freedom.