Playing these games with young people, and answering questions they might have along the way, can be a useful starting point for important conversations about grief." They can help show the player that they are not alone in what they are going through. "The games we have selected don't necessarily offer an ideal way to cope with death but tackle the topic of death openly and with a positive attitude. With these games, players may find valuable space in which to acknowledge grief as a completely normal reaction to bereavement." "To help children cope with loss, it is important that they receive honest explanations about death, appropriate to their level of understanding. "We express grief in different ways depending on our age," they said. By focusing on the intersection between gaming and mental health, they want to raise awareness of mental health challenges and reduce the stigma surrounding these issues. I've come up with some games that explore this topic, along with help and suggestions from Gaming The Mind ( Twitter), an organisation of UK-based mental health professionals who aim to promote positive mental health within the gaming community. But also, games can provide a helpful space in which to process, consider and understand death and loss. This means that some care is necessary if players are sensitive to losing significant people. Games include interactions, narratives and characters dealing with all aspects of life (and death). Most Puzzle video games are, by their nature, Turn Based but they can also be integrated into more pressured and time-limited Action game experiences. In this way, the puzzle can be used to communicate frustration, difficulty or tension as well as offer a sense of control, understanding and ease in or Adventure games. Other video games take this in more conceptual directions, offering puzzles that involve Action, Platforming, Shooting or even Role-Play relationships with other characters. Some puzzle games will focus on a traditional, self-contained, puzzle board with pieces to move.
They test many problem-solving skills, logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion. The games we specify here focus on a puzzle or conundrum as the main interactive mechanic. Puzzle video games are a broad genre, as there is something puzzling, or something to solve in most games. In this entry we are looking at Puzzle games. This is designed for people new to gaming, and aims to identify games with the least barriers. In this series, we are learning how different aspects of video games work by playing games that offer an easy introduction to this one concept. However games use these possessions to tell stories, it's always worth slowing down, noticing the objects we are rushing past and reading the literal and metaphorical notes about the world in which we are playing. In Before I Forget, possessions offer a gateway to our own fraying memories. In Hindsight we are asked to decide which objects to keep and which to let go of. In Overboard, for example, we need to use medication, ear rings and clothing to tell a story that the other characters in the world believe (one where we didn't murder our husband).įinally, games use possessions sentimentally to connect us to the past of characters. Other games use possessions as an important part of how we interact with the world. In this we find the story of a world in panic, but also of the people's lives before everything went wrong. In The Last of Us we find people's notes and possessions abandoned. In Unpacking we spend hours placing and arranging someone's things, and as we do we get to know them (and their hopes, loves, losses and travels) deeply. Some games let us get to know characters solely through their possessions. In, we are given a prized camera and bird book from our grandparents to tell the story of their bond and trust. Games like The Sims or Animal Crossing enable us to use possessions to create spaces that reflect the character we are playing. The objects of our lives tell a story about who we are and what is happening to us. Favourite toys, carefully written letters, hurried notes, pictures on the walls, dilapidated architecture, menus, vehicles, ticket stubs. Games often use their character's possessions to tell us about them, as much as what they say or look like. Because we can explore the spaces where games happen, they can also tell stories by the things we find. This can be similar to books and films, offering snapshots, flashbacks and poignant scenes that form a life. Games tell stories about people and places.
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