Did anyone in a videogame ever get cancer?

I was just thinking about stories in games and I decided you can't make a videogame about Breaking Bad. Like first off who do you play as? You can't PLAY AS Walter because he's supposed to be an independant character who makes his own decisions- then I thought about the whole massive journey of getting cancer.
Getting cancer can't be something you PLAY AS in a game, cos it's mostly an emotional thought process, and most stories about that are just how the character's attitude changes, and the scary minefield of thinking they go through. It's not an interactive-medium kind of thing, and there's no good way a game can do anything with it... Unless it was some completely abstracted indie game.
 
and now I'm just wondering if a game's ever even mentioned cancer. I can KIND OF picture Persona trying it? ...maybe The Sims could try it... not really. Just throwin a net out there!

Luigi got colorectal cancer in Mario 64.

@I_smell: Yep. Naomi Hunter from metal gear. You find out that the only thing keeping her alive is nanomachines and then she lets herself die near the end of MGS4.

I think of cancer in media to be portrayed as a sort of terminal disease. In that sense, I think quite a few video games have characters with terminal diseases - just replace the name of said disease with cancer and the results are still somewhat the same.

I honestly don't see why a game would even "try" imagining itself as a cancer patient. The sheer lack of emotional qualities that would be created would offend not only those with cancer, but people sensitive to the subject. Think of how soldiers (sometimes) are pissed about people believing Call of Duty is how "war is." Now just exponentially explode that idea into a quad-drillion and you will have the upset of a cancer playing character that is the focus of the attention.

the Fallout series had a lot of instances of cancer, while I do not remember them implectly calling it cancer.

Zach got cancer.

That's why his hair turned white.

I'm a medical professional.

@ck1nd

I don't see the problem if you want to use cancer as a plot device. I don't even think of it as a subject that has to be tip-toed around, really. Anyone who says otherwise is way too easily offended or trying too hard to not offend anyone.

@Demoskinos said:

@I_smell: Yep. Naomi Hunter from metal gear. You find out that the only thing keeping her alive is nanomachines and then she lets herself die near the end of MGS4.

Boom, my example

@Itwastuesday said:

@ck1nd

I don't see the problem if you want to use cancer as a plot device. I don't even think of it as a subject that has to be tip-toed around, really. Anyone who says otherwise is way too easily offended or trying too hard to not offend anyone.

I can see how you would see it that way, but I think it's more that cancer would have to be handled really well or it could fall flat on it's face. If the developer makes "light" of cancer in the slightest way, or just makes it feel like another "hunger meter" tacked on, it could offend those who feel it was handled too sloppily.

I know that if I played a game where "cancer" was simply something you had to take an injection every 20 minutes (in-game) to stave off it's "effects," I know I'd be pretty offended that they took such a [serious] type of plot device in such a bla·sé way.

@ck1nd: I see what you mean. If a developer tried to tackle the idea of cancer as a gameplay mechanic and ended up putting fat cancer meters on the screen, that would be a (hilarious) mess.

Unless, of course, we're talking about Trauma Center because Trauma Center was dope!

@ck1nd said:

If the developer makes "light" of cancer in the slightest way

The bizarre way you put "light" in quotes there makes it seem like part of some scheme to turn cancer into light.

If you think I'm going to sit here and let you do whatever the Hell you want with quotation marks you are out of your fucking mind.

COD MW2 gave me cancer :(

@BiffMcBlumpkin said:

The bizarre way you put "light" in quotes there makes it seem like part of some scheme to turn cancer into light.

If you think I'm going to sit here and let you do whatever the Hell you want with quotation marks you are out of your fucking mind.

Followed for advocating punctuation accuracy.

@BiffMcBlumpkin: Good man/woman!

Also didn't James' wife have cancer in Silent Hill 2? I know she was "sick" that is why he suffocated and killed her because he didn't want her to suffer anymore.

Deadpool has cancer, I think.

Edit. Though I guess this misses the point, being originally a comic book guy and not really cancer as OP implies.

This has been proposed a number of years ago. Well, sort of proposed. "Challenged," really (it starts at 1:13).

You can get cancer in Binding of Isaac: Wrath of the Lamb.

@I_smell said:

Getting cancer can't be something you PLAY AS in a game, cos it's mostly an emotional thought process,

Cancer is as much of a physical ailment as it can be an emotional one. Being diagnosed with cancer isn't a always inmediate death sentence, some cancers are very treatable nowadays. Untreated cancer is ultimately lethal. My point is, there are a lot of different types of cancer and how everyone experiences cancer (physically and emotionally) can differ from person to person even if there is common ground of having to deal with cancer. I can see why cancer could be something to touch upon in games but could also be very dangereous.

There was once a celebrity diagnosed with breast cancer. She got cured (remission) from it and told the media that the reason she beat cancer was because she was strong and determined in battling. She got a lot of flak for it, with people that also suffered from breast cancer saying ;"So the people that died from breast cancer were weak? They were not determined enough?" You gotta pick your words carefully and I think only the people that either survived or still deal with cancer or had close relatives/friends that were diagnosed with cancer, are able to do tread upon cancer in videogames. Who knows, I might write a story about cancer myself if I ever get to work in the field of cancer.

You can get cancer in Binding of Isaac: Wrath of the Lamb.

@Nightriff said:

@Demoskinos said:

@I_smell: Yep. Naomi Hunter from metal gear. You find out that the only thing keeping her alive is nanomachines and then she lets herself die near the end of MGS4.

Boom, my example

Could The Boss also count? I recall her talking about how when she was in space it was before shuttles could be shielded from solar radiation. She mentions that she showed interest in Snake because he was also a nuclear test subject. They never say she has cancer or anything but Snake and the Boss have been irradiated, no matter what they won't die of old age.

@Demoskinos said:

Crap, I was just going to post this. But, yeah... it is never stated what Mary had, since James just says "she died from that damn disease". I think we can safely assume it was some type of cancer. Btw, that is kind of a major spoiler, for those who don't know about it.

@BBAlpert said:

This has been proposed a number of years ago. Well, sort of proposed. "Challenged," really (it starts at 1:13).

This is one of my favorite videos

I think that video games have the potential of using real ailments while maintaining taste. I don't think illnesses should be shied away from in games, and there are titles that mange to evoke emotion in gamers.