Games reflections

You can find the link the following games I’m about to reflect on here, please take a go at playing them, some of them will change your perception on things and that’s a promise!

Depression quest:

At the beginning of the exercise, I didn’t really feel like this person is depressed. Stressed, anxious, tried, sure, but depressed was a stretch. I mean, as a university student, stress becomes your middle name, so that didn’t really appeal to me as depression. However, when picking the answers, I noticed a red line crossed through the first option, anf the first option was something I wanted to pick, but I couldn’t. Here is where it hit me. I realized that depressed people don’t have that happy option, they can’t go to a party and enjoy themselves when they’re feeling down, they can’t make themselves be happy, or lift off that heavy weight on their chest.

Whenever I feel too tired to study, I usually take a Netflix break, but then I get back to it. However, when I chose that option in the game, it led to even more stress and anxiety, because the person couldn’t get themselves to get off the couch, and they had procrastinated themselves into even more depression. This part really stressed me out, I felt like I was making the wrong decisions for someone with anxiety, it felt like there is no right answer. If he says no to going to the birthday party with Alex, he’ll probably lose her, but when he says yes, he feels even more stressed and fatigued which leads him to feel even more anxiety. There doesn’t feel like there’s a way out of this. No Netflix break, no birthday party, no social gathering, no work is cancelled and you can go home early news, is going to help someone depressed, because the happy things in life that make people happy, wouldn’t make them happy if they had depression.

All the options I chose were worse than each other, I’m not the type of person to stand next to a wall or go inside a room to avoid the crowd at a birthday party, so I felt pity for someone whose safe option is avoiding people, and my mind couldn’t resonate with how lonely that person must’ve felt at that party.

When his mother visited and kept asking what’s wrong, I chose the option to try and tell her, but my character couldn’t get himself to say it in the right words so he just seemed unappreciative and negative so he got negative feedback from his mother, telling him he needs to change his attitude or else he won’t get anywhere in life, which angered my character even more, and it was like I was there, and I felt the kind of frustration he felt that he couldn’t find the right words to say to his mother to explain to her how he feels, but she misunderstood and took it to mean that her son is just negative.

I’ve been offered to take in pets before, but I’ve never felt more guilty declining than I did playing this game, it’s like it adds even more burden and even more stress which my character really doesn’t need more of right now. My character can’t seem to do anything without feeling guilty or adding more stress onto his plate, even when his girlfriend came over for a movie night, he felt like he was holding her back from a better life and he felt like a burden for wanting to stay in. As I went further into the game, the available options decreased, in some cases, there would be 3 options crossed out and only one option remaining, and it reminded me that people with depression feel like that in real life.

Suggestion: although this game was very realistic and stressed on several important issues that depressed people felt, I feel like it was a bit too much. It made me feel really upset, and I didn’t really understand how to fix it. I think that if this game was trying to raise awareness on depression, then it should have also suggested some solutions and ways to deal with it and with panic attacks. For example, after the character talks to a friend or seeks help, they feel better, instead of worse. I think this is crucial because if someone who has depression played this game, they need to have some hope and know that there is in fact a way out, and that their lives won’t consist of several dead-ends. 

Sleep-deprived mom:

My sister is a mother of two toddlers, so I’ve witnessed this first hand. Although I’ve babysat her kids countless times, and taken care of them as if they are my own, my experience is nothing to be compared to my sister’s, because at the end of a long sleepless night of babysitting, changing diapers, cleaning up vomit, and rocking kids back to sleep, I get to go home and sleep in the entire day, but she can’t, this is her life.

This game wasn’t a really shocker for me because I witnessed my sister’s breakdowns and I’ve seen how stressful having a baby is, but still, playing it made me really stressed, because Moms always have to multitask and prioritize their children over themselves, which can cost them their mental stability.

I’ve been through many of the situations I witnessed in the game, for example, when my niece or nephew wants something and I refuse, they throw tantrums till I get it for them. I’ve written more than 5 late-night midterm and final papers whilst babysitting, after I put the kids to sleep, much like in this game, so I can actually imagine myself in this situation because I’ve actually physically been there (and it’s not pretty).

Suggestion: this game stressed on several scenarios that could occur to a woman during the first part of her motherhood. However, I feel like mothers have A LOT more impactful things going on in their lives than having to answer Facetime calls. From what I saw first-hand, they have to juggle sleep, family, cooking, working, and taking care of their appearance, as well as several other things. I think this game should have included the working aspect of a woman’s life, because a lot of mothers do work, which causes a lot of distress and requires a huge amount of organizational skills and multi-tasking.

Gender inequality:

This game is really relatable to real life, especially in Egypt where if you’re not sexist, then you’re probably a foreigner. The comments in the game may sound sarcastically or funny, but they’re actually things girls hear in real life. When I chose the baby born in the game as my preferred toy, my Dad high-fived me and said its good practice for when I become a housewife and mother, meaning that that’s all what’s expected from women here, which is true.

Choosing science over arts as my AP’s in the game, led the school counselor to discourage me because its too hard for a girl, and believe it or not, I’ve actually had this kind of thing said to me before, when I wanted to go into Pharmacy, I got a lot of “leave the hard majors to the boys, go into music or something light”. I’ve actually applied to universities abroad but wasn’t allowed to travel because “girls can’t travel abroad and live alone”, so I resonate A LOT with this game.

The “looking for a husband at 19” part in the game may have shocked many of you, not me, I’ve been getting arranged marriage proposals and nudges from my family since I was 17! My result at the end of the game was that the lifestyle I chose leads me to be independent but it’s not a lifestyle for women in Egypt, that too, has been said to me many times.

Suggestion: this game mentioned several real-life disturbing things that have been said to both men and women, but I think it would have been nicer if the women got to play men, and vice versa, so that both genders can see the deficiencies and advantages of the other gender, because as a woman, I know all this stuff already, I know what is being said to me, but I would’ve liked to play the game in a man’s shoes, to see how it feels like to be the other gender. 

Single mom:

My aunt was a single mother for several years, and I remember the kind of disappointed look people would give her, like she needs to find a husband, she shouldn’t have left her ex-husband, and no one would want to marry her now that she has kids, but guess what? She did get married again, so take that sexist society!

Being a single mother does not mean you will be poor, miserable, lonely, and a bad parent, like this game suggests, but this is how single mothers are seen in Egypt for some reason, because apparently for me to be a good mother, I need a husband. Surely I would struggle equally as much if I wasn’t financially stable regardless of whether I had a husband or not, but in Egypt, single mom effectively means alone, poor, depressed, stressed, overworked, and in need of a man.

Suggestion: this game focused on a very negative side of being a single mom. It mentioned how she would be financially unstable, tired, unable, and I think it should’ve shown how she actually is strong and able and can do it alone, rather than give in to society’s horrible misrepresentation of a single mother. one of my favourite quotes is “a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle” –  Gloria Steinem, and it’s completely true, a woman does not need a husband to raise a child, and the opposite is true, a good parent is a good parent regardless of the gender, it’s an individual preference and skill that cannot be generalized to an entire gender. 

Spent: 

Although i ended up with some money left at the end of the month, i lost both my job and my home, i had to miss out on my grandpas funeral because flight tickets were too expensive, and my son couldn’t enroll in after school activities like his friends. Playing spent stressed me out the entire time, I felt like I actually had these really tough decisions to make and no matter what I did, I always ended up losing something, and a negative consequence occurs. Everyday I’m faced with a different financial constraint and a difficult choice to make, and what make this so sad is that after every choice, there’s a real life fact about Americans who live like this and who must make these decisions daily too, but for them, its not a game. I really liked the fact that they involved real life statistics, it really opened my eyes to how bad people in poverty have it, they must make terrible sacrifices.

For example, in the game, I was too sick to go to work, but that meant missing out on a paycheck, and I couldn’t afford that, so I had to go, which made me even sicker, and I couldn’t afford the medicine, so I stayed sick. Also, I didn’t have enough money to pay for the electricity and water bills so we had to stay without them for the rest of the month, which is a really tough way to live. 

Suggestion: the game focused its attention mainly on American adults who face financial instability. I feel like it accurately portrayed how millions of Americans suffer from finanical constraints and I really liked the statistics at the end. I feel like it could’ve portrayed a stronger message if there was a part of the game that showed us poverty through the eyes of that son that was denied his request to join an after school club, and couldn’t go to the movies or eat ice cream like the rest of the kids. They could also include how the child feels seeing their parent be sick and not afford the help, or having to go days without proper food, or with no water or electricity. 

Syrian game:

The entire game revolved around escaping, choosing which route was the least risky to take, traveling either by water or by land, which both don’t seem like very enjoyable trips. No matter the situation, there was always a risk of either dying, getting caught, or something else bad happening to you. It gave me an insight into the stressful and unsteady life a Syrian migrant leads, which made me empathize with them greatly. The game ended very quickly, I think I’m safe…? Although trusting Ahmed was very risky and I had to wait 5 days without an answer from him after he took $7,000 from me, we finally made it to the Alexandrian shore where we crossed to go to Italy. It was a very uncertain experience, and the house he stuck is in in Alexandria was very unsanitary, but I think it paid off now that we’re being rescued. 

Suggestion: I feel like this game discusses a crucial issue that must be given a lot more attention than it currently recieves. It did mention the risky decisions that Syrian immigrants must take when fleeing their country, however, I feel like the game was too short for the weight of its subject, I feel like this topic in particular should have gotten a must stronger voice to it, and I do not feel like it was reflected as strongly as it could have in the game. 

I enjoyed playing the sleep-deprived mom game a lot because it was the most one that resonated with me. I picked these 4 games in particular because they were the most subjects I am interested in, and I think that overall, they were made in a successful manner. each game had its drawbacks and its competencies, however, I feel that the most accurate one that did not include any exaggerations was the sleep-deprived mom one. They all stress critical issues, but I would have liked to a see a little more seriousness and more effect on the one portraying gender discrimination, as it is a very serious issue the entire world faces. 

 picture source