作者：Alice Rendell

当你在大街上随便拦下一些陌生人并让他们描述心中电子游戏玩家的形象时，你总是会听到一些负面的内容。“孤独”便是最常出现的单词，而“不爱外出”或“缺乏社交性”也是常有的描述。

尽管面对的是这些负面描述，但是我却不想在此进行辩论。当然了我们不应该对某一群体的所有人带有偏见，并且我也绝不认为所有玩家都缺乏社交性。近来随着社交游戏和手机游戏的崛起，游戏分支开始向那些本不像玩家的人群延伸，而游戏社区规模也较之前扩展了许多。

但是我真的很好奇为何人们会如此看待游戏玩家。玩家真的就是一个孤独的角色吗？还是我们的看法有误？游戏是否是在为那些孤独人士提供着一些“现实”世界所看不到的内容？

video game player(from rsablogs.org.uk)

根据Science Daily（游戏邦注：一个综合性专业科学新闻网站），2011年全球共有1.21亿人口受到抑郁症的影响。尽管每个人的抑郁状况不同，但是也存在一些共同元素。

任何人脱离了社会时他便很容易感到被孤立或孤独。当你的团队开始对任务感到疲惫并缺少动机时，所有成员便很容易出现自我唾弃以及低成就感的现象。

作为一名终身抑郁症患者，我也能够全天候地玩硬核游戏，而游戏时间安排更是与这些内在情感紧密地联系在一起。在状态好的时候我可能只会受到一两种抑郁症状的影响；而状态不加时我甚至会被各种因素折磨得受不了。

游戏能够帮助我克服这些折磨，我甚至玩过一款游戏能够帮助我解决所有的症状。这时候我便是一名只是需要游戏的典型玩家（不是为了逃避现实而玩游戏），我希望通过玩游戏获得治愈，并且我也感肯定自己不是仅出于这一目去玩游戏的。但是游戏究竟是如何帮助这些带有负面情感的玩家呢？

反社交，社交游戏

首先我们需要先说说社交孤立与孤独的问题。处于低迷状态并不意味着你想要与外部世界隔离开来，事实上当你处在一个恒定的内在世界中时你便很难再趋向社会化。如果你自己都不能找点乐子，怎么还能指望别人自愿同你消磨时间？

《魔兽世界》这样的MMO游戏便能够为那些带有抑郁感的人提供一定的社会环境。《魔兽世界》中的社交元素并不苛刻，也未强求玩家在体验游戏时必须接受这些元素，只是让玩家能够根据自己的需要来选择。这同时也能够让你在心情抑郁时获得控制权——这也是抑郁之人最容易感到患得患失之物。

让带有抑郁情感的人仍能感到自己与世界的交集非常重要——即使他们未能完全参与世界活动。MMO和社交游戏让遭受抑郁症的人能够先浅试游戏而无需一头扎进其中，如此才能有效牵制他们那该死的孤独感。

这种在线游戏将提供给抑郁患者可行且易管理的社交互动，帮助他们摆脱完全的社交孤立状况并在世界中重新建立起自己的社交地位。

低成就感

认为自己是低成就者将在不同时刻影响着我们自身的发展，而如果你是抑郁症患者，那么这种感觉不仅会对你造成影响，同时它还将紧紧束缚着你直到最终渗透进你的每一个思维中。游戏主要是关于达到各种目标，并且这些目标不仅是突出的，而且还具有奖励性。假设我们玩《CityVille》这类社交游戏，那么我们的主要目标便是创建一座巨大且繁华的城市。

在现实世界看来这已经算是一个非常巨大的任务了就更别说在游戏关卡中了，但是游戏却将这个巨大的任务分割成一些小型任务。例如游戏中的一些首要任务便包含在城市中添加一些小装饰，或在每个家之间设置道路等。

如此看来我们都可以轻松地完成这类型的小任务，并且在此之前你可能会一直认为自己难以达到这一目标。任务本身总是具有奖励性并且是突出的，这便能够诱导玩家产生积极想法，认为“如果我能够完成这一目标，那么我肯定也能够出色地完成其它目标。”

这是一种让人满足的体验，我们不仅能够因此完成某些目标，同时也将相信自己的努力会获得认可。在现实生活中我们的努力总是很难获得同事，好友和亲人的完全认可。而在游戏中我们所做的一切却都能够获得某种回馈或赞赏。

很明显这对于那些陷入抑郁的人来说具有很大的吸引力。当我们缺少实现目标（甚至是最平常不过的任务）的能量时，如果能够在此完成任务并获得进展，那么不仅角色会变得更加强大，同时控制角色的玩家也将清楚自己有能力实现某些目标，从而更好地影响他们在现实生活中的心态。

为什么是我？

可笑的是我们发现了许多游戏都将其中故事定义为拯救世界或选中某个“天之骄子”去成为一名出色的士兵/巫师/英雄/水管工。我不认为这是因为游戏开发中缺少创造性思维所以需要以此弥补，我们需要更加注重每个场景背后所体现的情感。

每个人都希望自己能够与众不同，而游戏则能够帮助我们实现这一希望。在游戏中接受拯救世界的任务也就意味着你的“不同凡响”，虽然这并不现实，但是在此又有何关系呢？当我们在玩游戏时总会因为游戏的鼓舞而相信这一点，例如游戏会告诉玩家“你是我唯一的希望”或“你是被选中之人，是唯一能够解救我们的人”，如此玩家最终便会信以为真了。并且你将继续执行这一特殊且复杂的任务而以此加强这种感受。

不管这种感受是不是虚拟的都不重要，重要的是它能够唤起玩家内心的情感（即使是人为制造的感觉）并让那些抑郁者开始意识到自己的重要性，并驱赶他们内心的负面情感而融入更多希望。你可以拯救世界并因此成为其中的一员。

人们大多都不了解抑郁症，不管是医生还是患者本身。并且很遗憾的是我们很难改变患者的处境。而游戏则能够帮助我们更好地理解这种疾病。当我们了解了游戏能够提供给抑郁症患者现实所给予不了的东西时，我们便能更好地理解患者的处境。

游戏能够自然地做到这一点并且也能够给人们在现实中所缺少的东西。而如果我们能够将游戏的这种作用扩大化又会怎样？也就是游戏不仅能够帮助玩家克服抑郁症，同时也将提供给患者一些实际的技能帮助他们重返现实世界并解决他们在那里所遇到的各种问题。

游戏能够潜意识地提供给玩家可以用于现实世界的转换技能，如如何一步一步克服巨大的障碍，或者如何认可自己的成就等。

我们不应该再愚昧地认为游戏会引发抑郁症或其玩家都是一些孤独的群体，相反游戏将给予那些处于负面情感中的人士以正面力量，并帮助他们不断提升自己的现实生活。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Depression and the Video Game

by Alice Rendell

If you stop your average stranger in the street and ask them to describe a typical video game player, the answer is likely to include some unfortunate associations. The word ‘lonely’ would probably come up a lot and the phrases “doesn’t get out much” and “not very social” are likely to make an appearance or two.

Unfortunate though it is I am not necessarily here to dispute this fact. Of course we all know the dangers of stereotyping groups of people and I am not for one minute saying all gamers are awkward social nobodies. In fact nowadays with the rise of social and mobile games, the gaming arm has been extended to more and more unlikely types of players, and the gaming community in large is as diverse as it ever has been.

However, I must wonder as to where these types of generalizations come from. Are gamers really a sad lonely bunch? Or are we looking at this the wrong way. Is it that games provide sad and lonely people with something that the “real” world cannot?

According to Science Daily in 2011 depression affected more than 121 million people worldwide. Although the condition itself varies widely from person to person, there are of course some common factors.

Isolation and loneliness are key and usually progresses into a feeling of social disconnection from the world. Self loathing, as well as a numbing sense of underachievement is also typical, and when you team that with exhaustion and a complete lack of motivation it makes for a sorry state of being.

As a lifelong sufferer of depression myself, I can safely vouch for the fact that my most hardcore gaming phases of round the clock, routine gaming was intrinsically linked with these same types of feelings. On a good day I would perhaps only be affected by one or two of these symptoms. On a bad day I would be hit with the full force of all of them.

Games have helped and do help me through this and there was a game to counter every one of the symptoms I have described. At these moments I am the stereotypical gamer who needs to play games, not for escapism, but for healing and I am certain I am not, the only one. But what exactly is it that games do that help people who are feeling these types of negative emotions?

Anti-social, social gaming

Firstly, the problem of social isolation and loneliness. Being depressed does not necessarily mean you want to disconnect yourself from the world, it is more the fact that socialising is difficult when you are in a constant state of inward scrutiny. Why would someone else want to spend time with you when you don’t even want to spend time with yourself?

What a Massive Multiplayer Online game such as a World of Warcraft can offer is social situations on your terms. The social aspect of WOW is not demanding or even completely necessary to play and enjoy the game, but it is there to pick up and put down when you feel the need. This gives you back your control which, when suffering from depression, is something you often feel like you have lost.

This is important in making people with depression feel like they are still connected to the world, even if they are not currently participating in it in full force. MMOs and social games allow people who suffer from depression to dip their toes in the social pool without having to dive in head first, which is an incredibly necessary thing for keeping the really devastating feelings of loneliness at bay.

These kinds of online games provide sufferers of depression with accessible and manageable social interactions at a time when the alternative could be complete social isolation, and gradually help them to re-establish their social position in the world.

You got an underachievement

Feeling like you are an underachiever is something which I am sure affects most of us at one point or another, but when you suffer from depression this feeling doesn’t just affect you, it grabs and shakes you until the feeling is embedded in your every thought. Games however are all about achieving goals which are not only noticed, but comparably rewarded. If we take a social game like City Ville for example the main goal is to build a large, thriving city.

This is a ridiculously huge task in the real world and even on a gaming level it is no small feat, but what the game does is break down the bigger, overwhelming goal with small bitesize tasks. Some of the first missions of the game involve placing some small decorations on your city, or laying down a road going from one house to another.

These types of mini-tasks are not just accessible but extremely achievable with little or no exertion and before you know it you are achieving things just at a moment when you thought you couldn’t achieve anything. The tasks themselves are always greatly rewarded and never go unnoticed, which cannot but help induce a positive thought process which leads you to think “Well if I can achieve this, then maybe I can achieve other things as well”.

This is a gratifying experience to not only to be able to accomplish something, but also to believe that your hard work is appreciated. How often can we say in life that ALL our efforts at work or home are acknowledged completely by our colleagues, friends and families? But in a game, everything you do is acknowledged with some form of feedback or admiration.

The attractiveness of this for someone with depression is clear. At a time when it is hard to conjure the energy to achieve even the most mundane of tasks, to be able to experience completion and progression is more than a comfort, it is reinforcement of character, which reminds the individual that they really can achieve things, which hopefully translates into their real world activities.

Why me?

It has become almost a joke  to see how many games dedicate their story to that of saving the world or of being the special “chosen one” destined to become a great soldier/wizard/hero/plumber. I don’t believe this is necessarily due to a lack of creative thinking in game development but more to the power behind the feeling attributed with the scenario.

Everybody wants to feel special, but games make this a reality. To be entrusted with such an important task as saving the world, must mean you are important. Ok, it’s not real, but does that matter? When you are playing you are encouraged to believe it, the constance in which a player is told “You are my only hope” or “You are the chosen one, the only one to save us” is done with such regularity that after a while you can’t help but believe it. The fact that you then go on to accomplish this special and difficult task only reinforces the feeling.

It doesn’t matter that this is virtual importance, it evokes the feeling long enough for it to have an impact and if somone who is depressed starts to feel like they are important, even artificially, it will chase away enough of the inward negativity to insert a bit of hope. You can save the world, then you can become a part of it.

Depression isn’t a widely understood disease, not by doctors, not even by the people who are suffering from it. It is also a painful reality that the condition cannot be cured. What games can help us to do is to provide some insight into understanding better this disease. By knowing what games can provide for depression sufferers at a time in their life when they need something the outside world isn’t giving them, we can better understand the condition itself.

Games have been able to do this completely naturally and they are obviously providing something that was lacking for many people. But imagine if we went further with this and provided gaming experiences which not only help counter symptoms of depression, but actually gave depression sufferers the exact skills needed to rehabilitate themselves back into the world in way that helps them to beat the problem.

Games can subconsciously help provide players with transferable skills that can be applied to real world situations, such as how to overcome large obstacles one step at a time, or how to appreciate your achievements.

It is time for us to stop believing that games cause depression, or gamers are sad and lonely people, but instead believe that games are a unique provider of support and stability to many people in difficult emotional situations and can even help improve lives.(source:GAMASUTRA)