[Spoilers] Draugen's portrayal of mental illness is stereotypical, problematic and disappointing [Spoilers]

[IndigoAK]

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/343503/Opinion_How_Draugen_lets_down_its_characters.php

The fact that game developers still feel the need to reduce mental illness to a plot twist is troublesome at best and outright negligent at worst. Dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia are still highly stigmatized (and misunderstood) by the general public, and this can't change if mediums like films, games and books continue to treat these diseases as nothing more than the next surprise at the end of the scene/level/chapter.

I was really looking forward to this game based on my experience with the Dreamfall games, but as somebody who suffers from borderline personality disorder - another disease highly stigmatized and grossly misunderstood by the general public (and often negligently portrayed in films and games) - I can't support the way Red Thread chose to portray Edward's mental illness.

[sylviastuurman]

I disagree that this is a portayal of mental illness. I think that is a much too shallow interpretation.

My interpretation of the characters is:
Lissie is is "inner wild child". She is his life energy that is still has somewhere, but that he buries beneath hiw quest for his sister.
The quest itself is to prevent guilt from talking over. When he would not be on a quest to find his sister, he would be beaten by the responsibility he feels for the deaths of his sister, his mother and his father.
The `thing'stands for that responsibility and guilt. The `thing' would break him down.

It is Lissie who keeps hom alive, and in the end, he finally accepts that his sister is dead. That means that he is finally able to use his creative powers (Lissie, being part of him, proves how much creative powre he has).

[koying]

Well, sorry if I might feel insentive, but this is entertainement, not a documentary.
I understand it might hurt you personally, but, as pointed out, the multiple personality twist has been used in a bazillion movies, already.

Please, let us not let political correctness kill entertainement, or it will become as bland and/or boring as polenta ;)

[sylviastuurman]

I am curious why you think anything might hurt me personally :-)

That fact that the multiple personality twist has been used many times does not mean that it has been used here.

Everyone will have their own interpretation. For me, the multiple personality twist interpretation is far too shallow.

The story is rich, the world it depicts is rich, so I think my interpretation is better :-)

I don;t understand your argument about political correctness. What political correctness do you beleive to see???

[koying]

I was replying to the OP, sorry for confusion ;)

[IndigoAK]

Simply because reductive plot twists have been used in the past is not sufficient reason to keep using them.

Using mental illness as a plot twist in this manner only further stigmatizes the people who suffer from them. It paints mental illness as something that should be shocking or frightening, as something that is so abnormal that a person can't possibly live with it openly. It furthers the argument that we should be surprised and incredulous when we learn that a person suffers from a mental illness. This is not a healthy way to think about mental illness, neither for people who are suffering from it nor people who aren't. It just further pushes mental illness into a box that nobody likes to talk about.

And the article gives one example of how Red Thread could have used Edward's mental illness in a non-reductive manner.

But had the game front loaded with this understanding and let the drama emerge from something in Graavik--rather than using this tragic graveyard of a town as a stage for Edward’s quest for closure--the overall portrayal would have been far stronger. As it is, to service this “surprise! Edward’s craaaaazy!” twist trope, Graavik’s very real tragedies recede into the background, failing even to resolve into coherence by the game’s end.

I realized then, as the epilogue unfolded, that this was a game that actually shied away from its weirdness. Its theater of the mind was halfhearted, reduced only to jump scares of faces appearing in lightning-struck windows. What lay beneath in Edward, in Graavik, wasn’t truly explored. It was as if the game was somewhat ashamed of the territory it staked out, going only so far and then no further; in the process what was left behind was a story that veered dangerously close to ableist cliches. In the end you’re left to speculate about what really happened in Graavik, no clear answers forthcoming; that could have been an artful elision, but as it was it felt like yet another glaring lack in the game. Another missed opportunity.

TL;DR: Red Thread could have come out of the gate weaving Edward's struggling to cope with his mental illness into the narrative and used all of the time they spent trying to scare people with his illness to actually resolve the underlying mystery of Graavik.

[koying]

"It paints mental illness as something that should be shocking or frightening, as something that is so abnormal that a person can't possibly live with it openly"

Really not sure where you saw all that in the game tbh.

We, as player, are surely shocked by the revelation, but Edward seems totally fine with it, and there is just no other protagonists in the game that he could not be "open" about it...
The only disbelief moment for Edward is when he realizes Betty is gone long ago.. Nobody is scared at any point, neither Edward nor the player (at least, I wasn't).

Fact is Edward seems to have cope with his illness long ago, before the game.
As such, there just is no struggle in the game. That happened (probably) long before...

As for "It furthers the argument that we should be surprised and incredulous when we learn that a person suffers from a mental illness", not sure how you would want people to react when learning that someone suffers from an illness, mental or physical. Just pretend it doesn't exists?

[Red Thread Games]

We don’t want to jump blindly into this discussion, as anything we write can be misconstrued and misinterpreted. We’re happy to see a civil discussion emerging from various interpretations of the story. It’s understandable (and honestly heartening) to see players express their feelings about it in a public forum. Personal experience and trauma should be listened to, not dismissed, and we don’t want to lessen or attempt to ‘correct’ anyone’s honest feedback.

There’s one thing we want to address, however, without digging too far into things we’d rather leave unexplained. Mystery is important...but so is clarity:

Edward is a lonely man who’s lived an isolated life for over thirty years. His personal losses shaped him in many ways, some good, some bad. He’s understandably deeply afraid of losing someone close to him, and so he has chosen a life of loneliness rather than risk more pain. He hasn’t truly learned how to cope with loss, and so he chooses denial rather than acceptance. He struggles with anxiety and depression, but he’s not schizophrenic and he does not have a dissociative identity disorder.

A couple of more spoiler-y notes:

Some children have imaginary friends. They don’t typically stick around when the child matures. Sometimes, however, there may be circumstances that warrant holding onto such friends. Sometimes, the child may choose to conjure up other...things that are somewhat less friendly. These things may serve specific purposes. These things may reflect aspects of the child’s — and, eventually, the adult’s — personality. In some cases, these things might even take on a life of their own, becoming host to a seemingly independent consciousness.

And maybe, just maybe, imaginary friends are born not just of a child’s imagination, but of something stranger. Something that cannot be easily explained.

We can see how, in the absence of a clear explanation, players might jump to conclusions about the nature of Edward’s psyche and his relationships with the people around him...but we have given this considerable thought, and we’d never treat mental illness as simply a trope or plot device. Hopefully this can bring some additional dimensions to the debate — though we’re still going to listen to everyone’s point of view, and respect anyone who may disagree with how we’ve chosen to tell our story.

[sylviastuurman]

Thank hyou for the explanation!!!

[Алиса_349]

As a person, who has been stuggling with mental illneess for years, I feel like Red Thread touched this topic with proper respect and sensibility, leaving the player some space for interpretation.

I actually am fond of this trope, because it shows how imaginary friend or, if you like, an alter ego may be a coping mechanism, which can help a person to go on with life despite his loss.

In my teenage years I used to have imaginary friends too, I knew they were not real (just like Edward knows that Alice is not real), but this experience helped me to finally encounter some repressed parts of my identity. After some time I felt that I was strong enough to communicate with other people, and I haven`t had any imaginary friends since.

For me personally it was quite meaningful to see the bond and honesty between Lissie and Edward. She is a good friend, who cares about Edward enough to confront him about his obsession with Betty. Lissie may be not the healthiest coping machanism, but she is a small nice part is Edward`s lonely life.

Life is not black and white, and I feel like the game`s point was that even if we presume that Lissie is a symptom of Edward`s mental illness, the relationship between the characters still can be healthy and nurturing.

[ArdentSlacker]

I do know someone who has a... persistent companion that means well. And some quite nasty schizophrenia. You might want to tap them before speaking, not so much to get their attention, but to assure them that you're not a hallucination to ignore.

But, because this is a chronic thing... like, for years upon years? They're a lot LESS susceptible to delusion. They've had a life full of constant false signals to contend with and double-check all the things to be sure they're interacting with reality. They'd be the last person I'd expect to concoct a false narrative about anything.

[Nemo Nomo]

Originally posted by IndigoAK:

TL;DR: Red Thread could have come out of the gate weaving Edward's struggling to cope with his mental illness into the narrative and used all of the time they spent trying to scare people with his illness to actually resolve the underlying mystery of Graavik.

That's actually a very good point, and I do think it would have made the story stronger (whatever one may think of the accuracy of the mental illness depiction or the "political correctness" of being disappointed in its depiction). Since we're told that Edward and Alice will return, maybe that's what we can expect in the next installment of their story.

[Rodesqa_____]

You are an individual with a different experience. Stop generalizing yourself to a specific category. that makes life uninteresting and boring. just enjoy the game for what it is... a game. No one is taking this as serious as you are.

[Nerevarine]

I am 15 minutes in game and realized that Alice is a ghost of hallucination, its just too obvious

[Toni 'Bō' Jones]

What gave it away, Nerevarine?

[robilar5500]

It's at least a little funny how Edward 100% embraces one mental illness (Lissie) while trying to do away with another (Betty).