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Our Spring Sale is up and about – blooming with amazing discounts and fresh offers! While we fall into the new rhythm though, new cycle, with nature all around coming to life, adding new games to the library to play this year; why don’t we pause for a moment, and talk about something important?

For this years’ Spring Sale, we decided to partner up with Safe In Our World to raise the subject of mental health awareness within the gaming industry and video games enthusiasts’ community. Safe In Our World is a charity with the main goal of creating and fostering mental health awareness within the video game industry, to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health, make it a natural topic of discussion, and promote the dialogue surrounding mental health so that people are not afraid to reach out for help if they need it; and we want to support just that.

Together, we teamed up to create a special collection of games – we strongly believe that what we experience in the fictional worlds can often reflect real-world issues and feelings. Developers and storytellers use their creations as outlets to speak, share experience, show something – something personal to them, that can also help the players in exploring the journey of their own mental health. The Safe In Our World curated collection includes a range of games that were created tackling subjects such as loss, depression, identity, and can help gamers cope with or understand their mental health better; as well as generally challenge how we think about it.

Moreover, we’ve had the pleasure to talk with Rosie Taylor – Safe In Our World’s Content & Community Manager, who agreed to answer some of our questions and shed light on the matter of mental health within the gaming industry and the gaming community. Let’s see what she has to say!



So, how did the mission of Safe In Our World form; of aiming towards mental health awareness within the gaming industry and video games?

[i]In 2017, a group of games industry folk started a conversation about fundraising for mental health charities. During that process, came the recognition that the games industry itself was in need of its own mental health charity. In 2019, on World Mental Health Day, the charity was able to be officially launched and begin operations!

This industry is creative, exciting, and fast-paced, but it is paramount that we prioritise the wellbeing of the people working within it. That’s why Safe In Our World was formed; to ensure that wellbeing and mental health are a part of the process, both within games and within the companies that make them.[/i]

How do you think video games can help us overcome our own personal battles?

[i]Games are personal to each and every one of us that play them. We love to explore that personal relationship that you have to a story, a world, or a character, and see its effect. We know that many people feel as though games have always been that constant thing in their life, no matter what they’re going through. In the ‘Stories’ section of our website, you can find many stories on how games have helped a multitude of people in various ways. We’ve had people whose lives have literally been saved by games. We’ve had people who felt able to embrace their own identity drawing inspiration from characters in games. We’ve had people use games to help them overcome grief and loss.

Ultimately I think that games can offer that space to be who you want to be, process difficult emotions, and be able to escape from the world for a little while.[/i]



Have you ever noticed some games that have a particular influence on people? Titles that you know helped many?

We have a lot of folks talk about Celeste, Stardew Valley and Life Is Strange, for example. Celeste is a touching and powerful platformer, where the protagonist, Madeline, is overcoming her inner demons and going on a journey of self-discovery. Stardew Valley has been mentioned time again for being a non-judgemental landscape to date who you want, spend time how you want, and embrace your identity in a safe environment and community. Life Is Strange has been a haven for many, especially the LGBTQIA+ community, which has been evident from the response to characters like Steph and Chloe. We have a list of other games that we feel have had an impact on our website.

How did you discover the connection between mental health and video games? Was it through personal experiences, or rather seeing its influence on people around?

[i]I think it’s a mix of both. Personal experience is often what drives that emotional connection that we have for video games, and creating these wonderful worlds for people to explore at their own pace and in their own comfort is a key part of that.

On the other hand, we constantly see connection to each other through the power of gaming. Games can be the source of some of the largest and most welcoming online communities for players to interact with each other. I’ve made friends from having simple conversations about ‘that one devastating scene in Telltale’s The Walking Dead Season 1’ - if you know, you know. Seeing games companies stepping up to help make real-world change in philanthropy, environmental efforts and other charity work for example is amazing, and adds to the power that these communities can have on things that really matter.[/i]



Would you be comfortable sharing some personal story or experience in a mental health journey and video games?

I actually wrote a deeply personal story this week for our website, detailing my own moments of grief and how games played a part in bringing myself back to a place where I could process what happened.

Do you think the gaming industry is particularly vulnerable in terms of mental health pressure?

[i]I do, because of the intrinsic passion and standards that people hold themselves to. What we see an awful lot of in creative industries is burnout from the people within, due to a number of different reasons. The passion is definitely one part of it - it’s something that drives people to overwork in order to prove themselves worthy of a job because it’s something they feel that they don’t deserve. It can be other people’s passion; that ultimately sets unrealistic expectations on workload.

The games industry is known for things like crunch, and many times we will see this being ‘justified’ by ‘it’s just the way that it works’. Frankly, I don’t think that’s good enough. We know for a fact that there are companies in this industry who have an anti-crunch culture that are proving it’s not a necessary part of the process. Employees thrive more in environments where they feel valued, not overworked and underappreciated.

What we need to see is commitment from the people at the top, and across all levels, to be able to work together to avoid things like crunch and burnout, and promote positive wellbeing. This is the main reason that led us to create our keystone initiative; Level Up, where we work with companies to help with training, consultation, resources and support in prioritising the wellbeing of their teams and talent.[/i]

How do you think the gaming industry should approach mental health topics among employees? It’s a very difficult and sensitive subject, maybe you have an example?

With training! We provide mental health training to allow folks to know how they can navigate difficult conversations with people at work, and how to effectively and appropriately support their team.



We’d like to thank Rosie so much, for taking the time to answer our questions and giving us some insight on the topic of mental health within the gaming industry and gaming communities. We’d like to remind everyone that while you can check out our collection of recommended games, we encourage you to seek professional help. Safe In Our World’s website contains an amazing list of resources, of helplines and support sites that you can reach out to in a mental health emergency – you can find them on a list sorted by location.

Be safe and, most of all, take care of yourselves!
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/legacy-of-kain-soul-reaver-removed-from-steam-modder-says-license-issues-to-blame/1100-6489450/

Looks like a licensing issue.

Very weird but there you go.

From the above article:

According to Legacy of Kain fan developer "wrace," the author of a popular fan-patch that fixes several critical issues with the Soul Reaver PC port, a team at online storefront GOG are currently working to release a version of the game that will include lower-quality versions of the game's cutscenes.
GOG doing what they do best ;)
Hey! I am mental! Thought my psychologist said I should not say that about myself as this is jeopardizing. I experience bipolar and OCD same time, yh it's a real roller coaster. I don't like horror and thriller games unless it's somehow humorous. For a person with different .... mental abilities, like too low blood pressure those games might be fun. There are slow and quick people, none are better and everyone is a great player. The... The stigma of being mental is not true, it's other people's opinions accepted that made us weak, if you have any defect, in your head or anywhere else, make it your strength and use it in your games and life to protect the things you care for most. Life might be good when catching the good wind. ...and laugh of logic, you are entitled to ^
[Removed. Refrain from posting these kinds of messages.]

Global mental health is affected adversely by all those popular opinions and I am saying this as an health proffessional. You can burn the books but can't change the truth.
Post edited March 28, 2023 by Praymettin
[Removed.]
I have some bad news for you, sir. It doesn't, officially, for almost a decade now.
Post edited March 27, 2023 by Clownski_
[Removed.]

Anyway, salutations to all my fellow humans who don't feel always too great, we're gonna make it! Don't listen to the sorry sir here over: those people don't count.
Post edited March 27, 2023 by Clownski_
avatar
Seb7.9: Hey! I am mental! Thought my psychologist said I should not say that about myself as this is jeopardizing.
You're perfectly fine. Although since I'm the cat enthusiast around here, I should say that you're purrfectly fine.
never mind.
Post edited March 23, 2023 by lupineshadow
This thread and threads like this annoy me - as it is open to a lot of anonymous abuse (being an online discussion thread), and the GOG forum moderation being reduced.

I misread a post on this thread and reported it to a moderator who is not working currently. I still think the posts involved require moderation but not for the reason I thought.

I am as far as I know neurotypical and I can still get the wrong end of the stick, while others have an agenda, politicial or otherwise.

For anyone suffering from mental health, to reply to this thread, and then to be subjected to the bigots that hang around here, and having next to no moderation on the forum...it would be the opposite of what the thread purports to support. Not to say that it has already happened in this thread, but it looks like it would be very likely to happen.

And I think this is because of what these threads are - virtue signalling. Because you can't have a debate online about these topics without moderation. And GOG doesn't want to pay money for 24/7 moderation it seems.

So please when you have these virtue signalling topics in future...lock them after posting. Yes it is not ideal. But it is better than having unmoderated shitposting.
Awareness is one thing, but there needs to be more understanding of those who suffer from mental health issues, although they are complex and unique to the individual and the difficulties they have to deal with (for some) which can be on a daily basis. Having mental health issues isn't always caused through life choices, for some it's through bad upbringing, inherited from family members, abuse (self-inflicted or inflicted by others), bad or terrifying life changing experiences, and the list goes on... Most sufferers never chose this path, but still have to deal with it, for some (most ?) for the rest of their lives, and to add insult to injury, can be mistreated, abused or even ostracized by those who don't (or don't care to) understand.
This interview article should have been posted on a website that is more for intellectual analysis. This is a store website and people want to talk about games plus the list of games doesn't support this person's theory as to why something like Postal isn't on here. Postal is an excellent candidate for mental health issues.
Sometimes I just start up Stardew Valley to watch the pixel birds fly across the screen and listen to the music. For some reason it makes me feel instantly better. I think it might be something with the gentle music and the nostalgic colourful pixel graphics that just makes me smile.